Search this site
Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The reeling prosecution in the Skilling case
On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision earlier this year to hear Conrad Black's appeal of his criminal conviction on honest services wire-fraud charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1346 ("Section 1346), the Court yesterday granted former Enron...
Reflecting on astonishing abuses of power
As Congress contemplates an historic extension of governmental control in regard to health care finance, a couple of stories relating to the growth of unrestrained exercise of governmental power in another area grabbed my attention. First, former Dynegy executive...
The state of the Skilling case
The attorneys for former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, which is quite interesting and is being widely reported in the mainstream media. However, as interesting as...
Skilling fires back
As noted earlier here, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel decision in former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's appeal of his criminal conviction was unusual in several respects. For example, even though the three-judge panel reversed Skilling's sentence and...
The Fifth Circuit rules in the Skilling appeal
In this current anti-business climate, not many folks were expecting that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would set aside former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's conviction. On the other hand, not many folks expected this decision, either. In the...
Look at what Mary Flood has been reading
Chronicle legal reporter Mary Flood covered many of the Enron-related criminal trials, so it was only natural for her to pick up a copy of former Enron Task Force prosecutor, law professor and current Oregon attorney general candidate John...
The Enron Task Force laid bare
In this previous post on former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's Supplemental Brief regarding prosecutorial misconduct in connection with covering up exculpatory evidence contained former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow's interview notes, I noted that the Skilling brief would likely have...
The stench of prosecutorial abuse
The stench of prosecutorial abuse has long hung over the Enron-related criminal cases. But the extent of that abuse became crystal clear this afternoon when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's motion to...
What's going on in the Skilling appeal?
First, thank you to all of the many readers who have communicated their concerns and prayers for the family crisis that is precluding me from daily blogging for now. Your kind thoughts and words are comforting and much appreciated....
The DOJ loses another Enron criminal case
As expected, the Fifth Circuit denied the government's appeal yesterday of U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's decision to vacate the final count of the government's odious five count conviction against former Enron Broadband CFO Kevin Howard. The Fifth Circuit's decision...
The human cost of questionable prosecutions
One of the more discouraging aspects of the societal tide of resentment and scapegoating that has permeated the Enron related criminal prosecutions has been the utter lack of perspective or compassion regarding the horrendous human cost of those prosecutions. We...
The Fastow notes
The big Enron-related news this week was the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear the appeal of the Fifth Circuit's decision to dismiss securities fraud claims against several of Enron's banks (Ted Frank explains the decision). In light of the...
The rotting Enron criminal prosecutions
You won't read about it much in the mainstream media, but the Enron-related criminal prosecutions increasingly smell like a rotting carcass. After Jeff Skilling was lynched by an angry mob, most of the mainstream business media moved on to other...
Behind the scenes in the Skilling appeal and the Nigerian Barge case
I normally throttle down blogging during the holiday season to just one post a day, but I wanted to pass along something that you don't see every day in connection with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's appeal of his convictions...
Criminalizing the legal advisors
Regular readers of this blog know that the federal government's criminalization of business since Enron has been steadily encroaching on professionals who provide advice to business interests. First, it was Arthur Andersen, then the Merrill Lynch bankers in the Nigerian...
A continuing abuse of power
Economist James Buchanan won a Nobel Prize for his work on applying economics to explain how incentives impact the behavior of government officials. In short, Buchanan concluded that government officials are people who behave in the same selfish manner as...
The influence of junk evidence on juries
What do the juries in the Conrad Black , Dr. William Hurwitz and the Enron-related criminal trials have in common? In response to the verdict in Lord Black's trial, Professor Bainbridge observed that the result appeared to be a "compromise"...
$12 million = Billions in damages
American Enterprise Institute's Ted Frank provides this excellent WSJ ($) op-ed on the stakes involved in the upcoming Supreme Court decision in Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta, which could seriously erode the Central Bank rule against holding financial institutions secondarily liable for...
The Bill Fuhs of the Conrad Black trial
In this post from last week, I noted the similarities between the federal government's vacuous case against Conrad Black and the notorious prosecution of the four former Merrill Lynch executives in the Enron-related case known as the Nigerian Barge case....
More on the Enronesque prosecution of Conrad Black
David Radler, the key prosecution witness against former Hollinger International chairman and CEO Conrad Black, is currently testifying in the trial. Mark Steyn's blog of the trial continues to be the "go to" site for keeping up with the proceedings....
The Glisan Interview
Tongues were wagging all over Houston this weekend as a result of Wall Street Journal reporter John Emshwiller's exclusive interview ($) with former Enron treasurer and Andy Fastow confidant, Ben Glisan (excerpts of the interview are here). The theme of...
Thinking about the criminalization of business
Given that the governmental onslaught against business interests over the past several years is still a relatively recent occurrence, my sense is that we're still too close to it to be able to place it in the proper perspective. However,...
DOJ throws in the towel on appealing the Fifth Circuit's Nigerian Barge decision
The Chronicle's Kristen Hays reports on the news that was bubbling through the Houston legal community on Thursday afternoon -- the Department of Justice has decided not to mount an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the Fifth Circuit...
Has the BOP forgotten about Jamie Olis?
Earlier this week, Michael Kopper, one of the few true crooks in the Enron affair, traipsed off to a federal prison in west Texas to begin serving the 37 month sentence that he received in return for his testimony that...
Judge Gilmore vacates Kevin Howard's conviction
As predicted in this prior post, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore this afternoon vacated the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard (prior posts here) on five counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and falsifying books and records. A copy...
The injustice of the Jeff Skilling case
In a few days, unless the Fifth Circuit grants his motion to remain free on bond pending appeal of his conviction, Jeff Skilling will report to prison to begin serving a 24-year prison sentence. The image of Skilling entering that...
The Enron Task Force's next loss
This earlier post highlighted the Enron Task Force's extraordinary concession regarding the invalidity of four of five counts upon which the the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard was based. As noted in that post, the Task Force...
The Enron Task Force's extraordinary admission
Flying somewhat beneath the radar screen of the lynch mob that is fascinated with watching former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling imprisoned for the rest of his life is the case of former Enron Broadband executive, Kevin Howard. As you may...
Professor Podgor on the trial penalty
As noted in this prior post, one of the most perverse elements of the government's criminalization of business in the post-Enron era has been the trial penalty -- that is, the substantially longer prison sentences that executives face if they...
The Skilling sentencing hearing
Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's sentencing hearing is Monday afternoon, so it's a good time to provide some links that will provide a basis for an objective evaluation of Skilling's case as a counterbalance to what the mainstream media typically...
Fifth Circuit raps the Enron Task Force's knuckles again
This news just in -- the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Enron Task Force's petition for en banc review of a Fifth Circuit panel's decision (previous posts here, here and here) that struck down the wire fraud...
More ripples from the Fifth Circuit's Nigerian Barge decision
Amidst the publicity on the Andy Fastow sentence and the upcoming sentencing hearing of Jeff Skilling, the legal wrangling related to the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard (previous posts here) has been flying somewhat under the radar...
The surprising Fastow sentence
This Kristin Hays-Tom Fowler/Chronicle article picks up on an aspect of the six-year sentence assessed to former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow earlier this week that has largely been ignored in the media but noted earlier here -- the Enron Task...
The resentencing of Jamie Olis
US District Judge Sim Lake announced yesterday that Jamie Olis will be resentenced on Friday at 2 p.m., almost a year after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Lake's previous 24+ year sentence. As we await another chapter...
More rumblings in the Nigerian Barge appeal
In a move that may backfire, the Enron Task Force filed this petition requesting that the entire Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals consider and reject the decision of a Fifth Circuit three-judge panel from last month (previous posts here and...
The insidious nature of criminalizing business
Under mounting criticism over its dubious tactics in regard to threatening to go Arthur Andersen on KPMG in the prosecution of the firm's promotion of questionable tax shelters, the Justice Department is now making nice in Congress. Yesterday, deputy attorney...
Institutionalized scapegoating
Two news items at the end of this week reflect the festering cauldron of resentment toward business in American society that government is manipulating to advance its troubling regulation-through-criminalization policy. First, there was the news that New York's Attorney General...
Lay and Skilling's legacy of beneficial risk-taking
During the criminal trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, attorney Paul Fisher and economist Jim Johnston of the Heartland Institute authored this piece (see also here) regarding the unjust prosecution Lay and Skilling that echos a common theme of...
An attempt to withdraw a guilty plea exposes a dirty secret of the Enron criminal cases
As noted in this previous post about the typical mainstream media view toward the Enron criminal prosecutions, most media accounts of the case have perpetuated the myth (see also here) that the Enron Task Force has done a good job...
The real issue in the Grasso case
Eliot Spitzer's long-running propaganda campaign and lawsuit against former New York Stock Exchange chairman and CEO Richard Grasso has been a frequent topic on this blog, so I couldn't help but notice this NY Post article (hat tip to Peter...
Grundfest takes on the sad case of Jamie Olis
A heavyweight has entered the ring on behalf of Jamie Olis. The WSJ's Peter Lattman reports that Joseph A. Grundfest, W.A. Franke Professor of Law at Stanford University and one of the leading securities law experts in the US, is...
Christine Hurt is working on an interesting paper
Christine Hurt, Conglomerate blogger, former Houstonian and currently the Richard W. and Marie L. Corman Scholar in the University of Illinois College of Law, is working on an interesting paper that she describes here: The prosecutorial response to white collar...
The WSJ said what about the Enron Task Force?
The Wall Street Journal has had a spotty record in covering the corporate scandals that emanated from the stock market bubble of the late 1990's, as noted earlier here, here and here in regard to its coverage of the Enron...
More good news from the Fifth Circuit in the Nigerian Barge case
James Brown -- the only former Merrill Lynch executive who remains in prison after last week's Fifth Circuit decision reversing and vacating the convictions of the four former Merrill Lynch executives in the Nigerian Barge case -- appears to be...
Perpetuating the Enron Myth
As noted in this prior post on the death of former Enron chairman Ken Lay, the myth of Enron is now so fully embraced within American society that otherwise intelligent people reject any notion of ambiguity in addressing facts and...
Finally, some justice in the Nigerian Barge case
As foreshadowed by this post from last month on the Fifth Circuit's decision to release from prison three of the four former Merrill Lynch executives pending disposition of their appeal in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case (extensive discussion here), the...
The spokesman for the NatWest Three
What do you do when you can't hang out and chat with your blokes? Well, in the case of David Bermingham -- one of the three former London-based National Westminster Bank PLC bankers dubbed the "NatWest Three" in the lexicon...
Judge Kaplan sticks to his guns
Federal judges and prosecutors often have a cozy relationship. So, it was not particularly surprising that Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia requested that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan delete the names of federal prosecutors and his...
Foreshadowing a key issue in the Lay-Skilling appeal
In a strong indication that he believes that the matter raises important appellate issues, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake issued this this 22-page opinion late last week in the criminal case of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff...
Fifth Circuit orders the release of Bayly and Furst in the Nigerian Barge case
As this earlier post anticipated, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this morning ordered the release of former Merrill Lynch executives Daniel Bayly and Robert Furst pending disposition of the appeal of their controversial convictions in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge...
Lay-Skilling, Week Seventeen
Remember that point made in the previous week summaries about the predisposition of the leaders on the jury determining the outcome of the trial of the corporate criminal case of the decade? Well, in a strong indication that this trial...
Closing arguments in the first Enron Broadband re-trial
Inasmuch as I had a couple of hearings yesterday in federal court, I was able to slip in and watch most of the closing arguments of the Enron Task Force's case against former EBS CFO Kevin Howard (picture on the...
Lay-Skilling, Week Sixteen
Week Sixteen (prior week summaries here) of the corporate criminal case of the decade was closing argument week, and the lawyers used the full 12 hours over two and a half days that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake allocated for...
Lay-Skilling, Week Fifteen
Week 15 of the corporate criminal case of the decade (previous weeks summary posts here) was the relative calm before the final battle of closing arguments next week. Although there was a skirmish over the Ostrich jury instruction, the lull...
Anything for a conviction
As noted here yesterday, the Enron Task Force refused Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's request to have the prosecution recommend to U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that half-a-dozen former high-level Enron executives who have declined to testify during the trial...
Lay-Skilling, Week Thirteen
Week Thirteen of the corporate criminal case of the decade (prior weeks posts here) was the Ken Lay week and, based on the media reports, it was alternately either the most boring or the most entertaining week of testimony in...
Will Jamie Olis be freed pending re-sentencing?
This Tom Fowler/Chronicle article reports on the oral argument yesterday at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on former Dynegy executive Jamie Olis' appeal of U.S. District Judge Sim Lake's denial of Olis' motion to be released...
Lay-Skilling, Week Ten
After only one week of the defense's case and the tenth week of trial (prior week summaries here), it has become clearer than ever that the Enron Task Force's prosecution of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling...
Will the other Merrill Lynch executives be freed?
On the heels of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal's extraordinary order last week commanding the release of former Merrill Lynch executive William Fuhs, the three other Merrill Lynch executives convicted in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case -- including Merrill's...
Fifth Circuit orders William Fuhs released from prison
In an extraordinary development, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon -- just three weeks after oral argument in the appeal by four Merrill Lynch executives of their convictions in the controversial Enron-related Nigerian Barge case -- ordered former...
Lay-Skilling, Week Eight
Week Eight (previous week summaries here) of the corporate criminal case of the decade drew to a close on Thursday with former Enron treasurer and Andy Fastow protégé Ben Glisan on the stand and with the Enron Task Force announcing...
The Glisan Deal
When former Enron treasurer and Andy Fastow henchman Ben Glisan cut his plea deal with the Enron Task Force in September, 2003, he did not -- unlike most other Enron plea bargainers -- enter into a cooperation agreement that required...
The costs of Quattrone
Ellen Podgor and Peter Henning do a great job of breaking down the issues and details of the Second Circuit's decision in overturning the conviction of Frank Quattrone yesterday, so I'm attempting to step back and assess the big picture....
Quattrone conviction overturned
In a result that was anticipated by this earlier post, the ever-observant Peter Lattman reports this afternoon that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in this 61-page opinion has overturned the conviction of former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker...
Lay-Skilling, Week Seven
As the seventh week (earlier week summaries here) of the epic corporate criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling drew to a close, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake gave the lawyers and the jurors an...
The Enron Task Force's unraveling Nigerian Barge case
Early last week, oral arguments were heard in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on the appeal of the four Merrill Lynch executives who were convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy charges in November 2004 in the trial of the...
Department of Coercion
John Hasnas is a professor of ethics and law at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and is the author of the new book, Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law (Cato 2006), which is an adaptation of Hasnas'...
Oral argument today in the Nigerian Barge appeal
Oral argument takes place today at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in the appeals of Dan Bayly, Robert Furst, James Brown and William Fuhs, the former Merrill Lynch executives who were convicted of wire fraud and...
While Sheila Kahanek tells her story, William Fuhs sits in prison
During its four year existence, the Enron Task Force has always been better at bludgeoning plea bargains and villifying former executives in the media than actually obtaining convictions in court. One of the former Enron executives who stood up to...
Are you ready to rumble?
To the surprise of no one who has ever tried a case before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, a jury was empaneled yesterday (NY Times article here) in the Enron Task Force's legacy case against former key Enron executives Ken...
The key evidentiary issue in the Lay-Skilling case
The Chronicle's Mary Flood leads today with this timely article on the key evidentiary issue in the upcoming criminal trial of top Enron executives, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling -- to what extent the prosecution will be able to get...
Emshwiller's Enron surprise
John Emshwiller of the Wall Street Journal ($) weighs in today on the defense strategy of former Enron key executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling for their upcoming criminal trial, and he is surprised to find that Lay and Skilling...
The Talented Mr. Kopper
The NY Times' Landon Thomas, Jr. -- whose interesting article on former Merrill Lynch executive Nigerian Barge defendant Daniel Bayly was highlighted in this previous post -- scores again today with this fascinating article on Michael J. Kopper, the former...
The high price of asserting innocence
Last week, former Enron chief accountant Richard Causey pled guilty to a single count of securities fraud and agreed to a seven-year prison term after vigorously defending himself from multiple charges of business crimes for over two years. Had he...
Causey pleads to seven years
As expected, former Enron chief accountant Richard Causey pled guilty Wednesday afternoon to a single count of securities fraud while agreeing to a prison sentence of seven years and a fine of $1.250 million. A bookmarked copy of the plea...
What's the big deal with the Lord of Regulation?
Matthew T. Bodie is a Hofstra law professor who is guest blogging over at the Conglomerate blog and, in this post, wonders why fellow law professors such as Stephen Bainbridge and Larry Ribstein are critical of New York attorney general...
USA Today scoops the majors in analyzing the Enron Task Force's legacy case
Is it just me or does anyone else find it odd that this USA Today article is doing a better job of covering the prosecutorial abuse that is taking place in the Enron-related criminal cases than supposedly more thorough national...
NY Times on the sad case of Dan Bayly
Landon Thomas, Jr. of the New York Times has written this major Sunday Times article about the sad case of Daniel Bayly, the former head of Merrill Lynch's global investment banking division who is presently serving a two and a...
Lay-Skilling-Causey witness intimidation allegations scheduled for hearing
This Mary Flood/Chronicle article reports that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake has scheduled a hearing in the Enron Task Force's legacy case against former key Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey over the defendants' allegations that the...
Finally, some justice for Jamie Olis
The sad case of Jamie Olis has been a frequent topic on this blog as an egregious example of the injustice that has resulted from the government's increasing criminalization of business in American society. Last night, after many months of...
Finessing witness intimidation
When Don Corleone wanted to intimidate someone, he would "make them an offer that they could not refuse." Taking a page from the Don's book, when the Enron Task Force wants to intimidate a favorable defense witness from testifying in...
Criminal case against former Duke Energy traders goes to trial
It's not as sexy as some of the Enron-related criminal trials, but the trial of two former Duke Energy natural gas traders began in Houston federal court yesterday. Former Duke traders Timothy Kramer and Todd Reid face racketeering, conspiracy, wire...
More on criminalizing risk-taking
Robert Weisberg is Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Criminal Justice Center at Stanford University, where he teaches a course on white collar crime with David Mills, who is a senior lecturer there. In this...
WSJ editors do better, but where have they been?
After criticizing the Wall Street Journal yesterday for running a listless article about prosecutorial misconduct in the Enron-related criminal cases, it's only fair to note that the WSJ editors do much better today in this editorial ($) (see this related...
A Judge challenges the Enron Task Force's bludgeoning of a plea bargain
A frequent topic on this blog has been the unjust nature of the government's questionable tactic of bludgeoning business executives into plea bargains by playing on the executive's fear of a draconian prison sentence (often an effective life sentence) if...
Judge Lake's letter-writing campaign
In a hearing yesterday afternoon in Houston federal court, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake continued to grapple with strong evidence that the Enron Task Force has engaged in a systematic campaign of intimidating witnesses in the upcoming trial of former...
The Lay-Skilling-Causey motion to dismiss
As noted in earlier posts here and here, the longstanding suspicions that the Enron Task Force has been engaging in witness tampering in the Enron-related criminal cases is now in full public view. This Mary Flood article reports on the...
Judge examining Lay-Skilling witness tampering charges
Following on this post from earlier this summer, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake gave his strongest indication to date that he is prepared to take action against the Enron Task Force's strategy to deny former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former...
The Enron Task Force attempts to muzzle Sherron Watkins
When the Task Force fingered the record number of 114 co-conspirators in their legacy case against former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling and former chief accountant Richard Causey, the Task Force effectively ensured that most defense witnesses...
More on criminalizing risk taking
Vic Fleischer over at the Conglemerate blog continues his campaign to increase the business of the white collar criminal defense bar with a couple of posts (here and here) in which he suggests that "financial engineering" of the type that...
George Melloan gets it
A couple of months ago, this post noted Wall Street Journal columnist George Melloan's op-ed on the Supreme Court's Andersen decision in which he harshly criticized the government's abuse of the rule of law to pursue currently unpopular businesspeople. Today,...
Plaintiffs in Enron class action plaintiffs turn up the heat on Merrill Lynch
Assuming that you have not already been chloroformed by the recent discussion of the Nigerian Barge criminal case, this AP story reports on a development last week that tees up Merrill Lynch's involvement in that transaction where it ought to...
More thoughts on the Merrill Lynch defendants' Nigerian Barge appeal
Having tended to my "day" job at the end of last week, I wanted to pass along some further thoughts on the lively discussion that erupted between Vic Fleischer, Larry Ribstein, other commentators, and me last week in regard to...
Discussing the Merrill Lynch defendants' Nigerian Barge appeal
This post earlier in the week on the appeal of the Merrill Lynch defendants in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case generated quite a bit of traffic and some interesting responses from around the blogosphere. First, Larry Ribstein complimented the post...
The Merrill Lynch defendants appeal in the Nigerian Barge case - criminalization of business run amok
The Enron-related Nigerian Barge case has been a frequent topic on this blog as a prime example of the Justice Department's dubious criminalization of common business practices in the post-Enron era. As a result of that questionable policy, four former...
The Chron interviews outgoing Enron Task Force Director
The Chronicle's Mary Flood, who has done a fine job of covering the Enron case for the local newspaper, interviews Andrew Weissmann, the former Enron Task Force director who resigned as director of the Task Force this past week amidst...
The sad case of Daniel Bayly
Daniel Bayly has had an impeccable professional career. A 30 year veteran of the executive ranks of Merrill Lynch, Mr. Bayly joined Merrill in 1972 as an associate in New York and rose through the ranks to become a managing...
Weissman steps down as Enron Task Force chief
In a development that is intriguing by its timing, Andrew Weissmann is resigning as director of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, reportedly to enter private practice, although that report has not been confirmed. Another Task Force prosecutor -- Sean...
Another Enron plea bargain
On the day that the jury in the Enron Broadband trial began deliberations, the Enron Task Force announced that Christopher Calger, a former executive with Enron North America, had pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy count and agreed to cooperate...
Final arguments in Enron Broadband trial
The Chronicle's Mary Flood -- who has done a fine job as the Chron's primary reporter on both the Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial and the ongoing Enron Broadband trial -- files this report on the final arguments in the latter...
Is the prosecution engaging in witness tampering in the Skilling - Lay criminal case?
I was at the Federal Courthouse yesterday for a late morning hearing and decided to stick around and pop into an early afternoon status conference in the government's biggest Enron-related criminal case -- that is, the case against former Enron...
Meanwhile, checking in on the Enron Broadband trial
With the Scrushy trial out of the way, those interested in the criminalization of business are now focusing on the Enron Broadband trial, which is slogging through its eleventh week. Houston Chronicle Enron reporter Mary Flood battles through the chloroforming...
Scrushy is acquitted
Former HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard M. Scrushy was found not guilty today by the jury in the trial over over his alleged participation in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at the huge health services company. Along with the sentencings in...
While Theodore Sihpol goes home, William Fuhs goes to jail
Continuing relentlessly to avoid addressing the real issue, this NY Times article speculates that the problem with Eliot Spitzer's recent unsuccessful prosecution of Theodore C. Sihpol, III was not that he charged Mr. Sihpol in the first place, but that...
Ripples from the Andersen decision reach the Bayly appeal
This post from mid-May noted former Merrill Lynch executive Daniel Bayly's motion to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that he remain free during the appeal of his conviction and sentence in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case. Subsequently, the...
Local Judge News
The morning brings us news on several judges with local ties who are entering new phases of their lives. First, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein, Jr. announced yesterday that he would be taking senior status on December 31. Although he...
More on the Sihpol acquittal
The Sihpol acquittal from last week has generated much needed criticism of the demagogic ways of New York AG Eliot Spitzer, including this Wall Street Journal ($) editorial the day after the acquittal. While the WSJ editorial rightly criticizes Mr....
First Enron Broadband defendant testifies
On the heels of the dramatic testimony that occurred late last week, this Chronicle article reports that Rex Shelby, former senior vice president of engineering and operations for Enron Broadband, yesterday became the first of the five defendants in the...
A foul odor emanates from the Enron Broadband trial
Following on the heels of this post from yesterday, the slumbering Enron Broadband trial was jolted Friday as Lawrence Ciscon -- a former Enron Broadband systems engineer who the Enron Task Force has fingered as a target of its ongoing...
When "Justice" destroys good reputations
The Sihpol acquittal yesterday focuses attention on an important aspect of the current wave of criminalizing merely questionable business transactions -- that is, the government's destruction of good reputations in its quest to obtain convictions and prevent juries from hearing...
George Melloan on the Andersen decision
George Melloan is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal, where he is responsible for the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Asian Wall Street Journal and writing a weekly column called Global View. Mr. Melloan...
Andersen wins at the Supreme Court
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of the defunct Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying documents relating to its client, Enron Corp., before Enron collapsed into chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2001. Here are the previous...
More Nigerian Barge sentencings
The two remaining unsentenced former Merrill Lynch executives and the only Enron executive convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the Enron-related criminal trial known as the Nigerian Barge case are being sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein in...
A masterful performance
Inasmuch as I had to appear at an hearing in federal court early this morning, I stuck around after my hearing to attend the sentencing hearing of former Merrill Lynch executive Daniel Bayly in connection with the Enron Nigerian Barge...
More on sentencing run amok
Following on the heels of this post from last week on the sentencing hearing tomorrow in U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein's court in regard to two defendants in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case, developments in another case this past week...
The Enron Broadband Trial
Almost three and a half years after Enron collapsed into bankruptcy, the first criminal trial involving exclusively former Enron executives will crank up in front of U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore in Houston federal court on Monday. Here is the...
Sentencing run amok
The Chronicle's Mary Flood reports today on recent developments in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case, in which four former Merrill Lynch executives and one former Enron executive are awaiting sentencing after being convicted last year of wire fraud and conspiracy...
Meanwhile, the Enron investigation goes on and on and on
This Mary Flood Houston Chronicle article reports that a second grand jury has been empaneled to replace the original federal grand jury that has been investigating the Enron scandal for the past three years. According to Ms. Flood, Enron Task...
Enron-related developments
The Chronicle's Mary Flood, who continues to do a bang up job of keeping up with the unfolding events relating to the various aspects of the Enron scandal, has a couple of Enron-related news items today. First, she reports that...
Fifth Circuit issues its first post-Booker decision
In its first decision since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Booker that overruled the mandatory nature of the federal sentencing guidelines, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on this past Friday explained how Booker issues are to...
A hopeful sign in the Enron Nigerian Barge case?
Yesterday brought perhaps the first sign that a more measured approach to sentencing in white collar criminal cases may be in the offing since the current trend of criminalizing questionable business transactions began with the meltdown of Enron in late...
Looking upstream and downstream in prosecuting accounting fraud
This this NY Times article reported last week that nine executives from a several food supply companies have been charged with crimes for their part in a revenue pumping scheme at U.S. Foodservice, a subsidiary of the Dutch company Royal...
The criminalization of investment banking
NY Times business columnist Floyd Norris hits the nail on the head in his column today in which he observes that the rebound in the investment banking industry this year must be tempered with the plight of Daniel Bayly, the...
Fifth Circuit upholds vague Commodity Exchange Act reporting law
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued this decision on Friday in the case of former Dynegy trader Michelle Valencia that upholds a controversial law that the Justice Department has used to charge a group of Houston...
That's one helluva conspiracy
The Enron-related criminal cases just seem to get more bizarre by the day. This Chronicle article reports that the Enron Task Force has named 114 unindicted co-conspirators in the Task Force's criminal case against former Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeffrey...
Nigerian Barge jury finds $13.7 million market loss
The jury in the Enron-related criminal trial known as the Nigerian Barge case concluded the market loss hearing by determining today that the sham barge sale that was at the center of the trial cost Enron shareholders $13.7 million. In...
The least surprising motion of the year
In an expected move, former Enron Corp. CEO and COO Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay and former Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey filed a motion Monday stating that Phoenix, Denver or Atlanta would be fairer places in which...
The Nigerian Barge market loss hearing
After convicting four former Merrill Lynch executives and a former Enron executive of wire fraud and conspiracy charges yesterday, the jurors in the Enron-related trial known as the Nigerian Barge case heard from opposing expert witnesses today regarding the market...
Nigerian Barge Jury convicts five out of six defendants
The federal jury in the Enron-related criminal case known as the Nigerian Barge case acquitted a former Enron accountant today and found her five co-defendants guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The jury cleared former Enron accountant Sheila Kahanek...
Nigerian Barge case goes to the jury
Final arguments ended today in the Enron-related criminal trial of four former Merrill Lynch executives and two former mid-level Enron executives in what has become known as the Nigerian Barge trial. Earlier posts on the trial may be reviewed here,...
Lay's bid for a separate trial backfires
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake >ruled unexpectedly on Tuesday that former Enron Chairman and CEO Ken Lay will face two separate criminal trials -- one with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and former chief Enron accountant Richard Causey, and another...
Enron-related extradition of British bankers approved
A British judge ruled Friday that three British bankers indicted in the U.S. on Enron-related fraud charges could be extradited to stand trial in Texas. Here is a prior post that reports on the background of this case leading up...
Checking in again on the Nigerian Barge trial
The defendants began putting on their cases this week in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial in Houston federal court, and already there have been some significant developments. Attorneys for defendants and former Merrill Lynch executives James Brown and Daniel Bayly...
Checking in again on the Nigerian Barge trial
I was in federal court yesterday, so I had occasion to drop in again (here is my earlier report on the trial) on the ongoing Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial, which was concluding its third week. The prosecution's second star witness...
Enron prosecutors pursue extradition of English bankers under U.K. terrorism law
Three former Natwest Bank bankers appeared in a London court yesterday to fight extradition to the United States, where they are facing fraud charges in connection with a deal with Enron Corp. Natwest bankers David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary...
Checking in on the Nigerian Barge trial
I had a hearing on Monday afternoon in federal court, so I went a bit early and sat in on the ongoing trial of the first Enron-related criminal case to go to trial -- the Nigerian Barge case. Today was...
Are you ready to rumble? -- First Enron criminal trial begins Monday
After three years from Enron Corp.'s demise into bankruptcy, dozens of indictments and plea bargains, and an unprecendented government and media campaign to demonize former Enron executives, the first criminal trial against former Enron executives will begin Monday in Houston...
Another trial in an Enron criminal case gets pushed back
Remarkably, almost three years after Enron's descent into bankruptcy amid wide-ranging allegations of corporate fraud, the Enron Task Force still has not taken a criminal indictment against a former Enron executive to trial. And one of the first Enron-related criminal...
Ken Lay's Washington Post op-ed
In this Washington Post op-ed, former Enron chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay makes the following disclosure and asks a very reasonable question: At my request, my lawyers have filed motions in federal court asking for an immediate and...
The Enron noose tightens
The Government's noose around neck of Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay got a bit tighter today as Kevin P. Hannon, former chief operating officer of Enron Corp.'s heavily promoted telecommunications unit, became the latest former Enron executive to plead guilty...
Nigerian Barge case postponed again
The Enron Task Force's recent decision to re-indict the defendants in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge case has caused another postponement of the trial in that case. The trial, which was scheduled to begin on either August 16 or 17th, has...
Ken Lay presses for a speedy trial
In an astounding move in a case of nearly unprecedented negative publicity, Ex-Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay requested U.S. District Judge Sim Lake today to grant a speedy trial -- even possibly waving a jury trial to get it...
Enron trader cops plea
John Forney, former manager of Enron Corp.'s online trading desk, pleaded guilty today to charges in California that he manipulated energy markets during California's power crisis. Mr. Forney, who is 42, is the third Enron executive to plead guilty to...
Enron Broadband defendant pleads guilty
Ken Rice, the former head of Enron’s broadband Internet business, became the 11th person to plead guilty to an Enron-related crime when he admitted to a single count of securities fraud this morning before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore in...
Blakely decision prompts revised Enron indictments
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Blakely v. Washington (prior posts here) -- which has called into question the Constitutionality of both state and federal sentencing guidelines -- has prompted Enron Task Force prosecutors to re-indict defendants in the...
WSJ on Mike Ramsey
This Wall Street Journal ($) article profiles Houston criminal defense attorney, Mike Ramsey, who is heading up the criminal defense team that is defending former Enron Chairman and CEO, Kenneth Lay. The article captures Mr. Ramsey's homespun wit in the...
Ken Lay PR campaign continues
On the heels of his indictment and earlier extraordinary NY Times interview, the Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Flood interviewed former Enron Chairman and CEO Ken Lay on Friday on a wide range of topics relating to the indictment, his initial...
Update on Lay indictment
It looked like a video campsite outside the Federal Courthouse in Houston on Thursday as the media gathered to observe the spectacle of former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay being led into the courthouse in handcuffs. Mr. Lay pled...
Enron Task Force adds charges in Nigerian Barge case
The Enron-related criminal case dubbed the "Nigerian Barge case" would already be in trial but for a conflict with the Judge's previously scheduled vacation that resulted in a postponement of the trial until mid-August. Using that delay to their advantage,...
Enron Nigerian Barge criminal trial postponed
Following on the earlier post from today, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein has postponed the trial of the Enron Nigerian Barge case. The trial will now begin on August 16....
Enron Nigerian Barge case cranks up
The first Enron-related criminal prosecution to go to trial since the 2002 case against Arthur Andersen begins today in U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein's court in Houston. This Houston Chronicle story reports on the difficulty of finding unbiased jurors in...
Nigerian Barge defendants go on the offensive
This NY Times article reports on a potentially important development in the Enron-related criminal case against two former Enron executives and four Merrill Lynch executives dubbed the "Nigerian Barge case." The Houston Chronicle story on these latest developments is here....
Nigerian Barge case update: Justice won't call Fastow
As noted in this earlier post, the Enron Task Force's first trial in a case stemming from its over two year investigation into the collapse of Enron Corp. will begin next Monday in U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein's court in...
Enron Nigerian Barge case gets teed up
This Chronicle article reports on the pre-trial conference yeseterday in the Enron-related criminal case commonly known as the "Nigerian Barge case," which appears to be the first Enron-related criminal case that will actually go to trial. As noted in previous...
Another former Enron exec cops a plea
This Chronicle story reports on today's plea bargain and settlement involving Paula Rieker, the former Enron managing director of investor relations. Under the deal, Ms. Rieker will turn over to the SEC nearly half a million dollars she made off...
Lea Fastow gets a year
Lea Fastow's plea bargain with the Enron Task Force was approved today, and U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced her to a year in the slammer. Mrs. Fastow plea guilty to a misdemeanor charge of income tax evasion. The Task...
Another Enron-related plea bargain
The SEC and the Enron Criminal Task Force are preparing to bring civil and criminal charges -- along with a plea bargain and a settlement -- against Paula Rieker, the former corporate secretary and investor-relations executive of Enron Corp. Government...
Enron Task Force blinks, enters into new plea deal with Lea Fastow
This Chronicle article reports that Lea Fastow, wife of ex-Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, was charged with a misdemeanor tax count today and is scheduled to plead guilty at a new arraignment next Thursday. Previouwly subject to a six counts of...
Judge sets Lea Fastow trial to begin June 2
U.S. District Judge David Hittner kept the pedal to the metal in the Lea Fastow trial today by scheduling the case to begin on June 2. Everyone still expects that the government and counsel for Ms. Fastow will cut a...
Enron criminal trial postponement rejected
This Chronicle story reports on an interesting development in the Enron-related criminal case commonly referred to as the "Nigerian Barge case." U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein rejected one of the defendants' request for a postponement of a July trial setting...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries matching 'Nigerian Barge case'. [What is this?]
