Daily Archives: April 7, 2004

Clemens is the ultimate stopper

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41 year old Roger Clemens threw 7 one hit innings in his first start as a Houston Astro in leading the ‘Stros to a 10-1 mangling of the San Francisco Giants. Here is the NY Times article on the game and Clemens’ pre-game telephone conference with Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner.
Clemens — who is the best pitcher of his generation and one of the best of all-time — turned in a dominating performance as he struck out nine and even chipped in with a hit (I think it was like the fifth hit of his career; he’s been an American League pitcher for a long time). Bags, Hidalgo, and Kent hammered homers, and Biggio doubled twice and scored twice. The 10 runs felt good after the Stros struggled to score in the first two games of the series.
The Stros now hit the road for a week as they play in Milwaukee and St. Louis. They return to Minute Maid on Friday, April 16th against the Brew Crew.

Lea Fastow withdraws guilty plea

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U.S. District Judge David Hittner announced to a crowded federal courtroom this morning that he would not accept the plea arrangement between the Enron Task Force and Lea Fastow. The judge declined to tell Lea Fastow what his sentence would be if she were to enter a guilty plea, anyway, and that she would have to decide whether to take the risk of his sentence. Mrs. Fastow declined and withdrew her guilty plea. Here is the NY Times article on the hearing.
Here is a copy of Mrs. Fastow’s Memorandum in support of the plea bargain.
The parties now saddle up and are scheduled for a Brownsville, Texas trial, with jury selection starting in June. Mike DeGeurin — Dick DeGuerin‘s brother despite the different last name spellings — ably represents Mrs. Fastow.
Although an unusual development, Judge Hittner’s refusal to accept the plea bargain is probably not that big a deal. It will not affect Andrew Fastow’s cooperation with the Task Force under his plea bargain, which is already extensive. Probably the biggest impact is that it may force the Task Force actually to try a case against a former Enron official, rather than simply hammer them into a plea bargain through filing of multi-count indictments that place the defendant at risk of what amounts to a life sentence if he or she dares to assert their innocence at a trial on the charges.
Another interesting dynamic that is not mentioned in the news reports is that I believe that Judge Hittner has never been thrilled with the Enron Task Force’s approach in prosecuting Mrs. Fastow. From the beginning, the prosecution of Mrs. Fastow was pursued to exert pressure on her husband. Knowing Judge Hittner, he may be holding the Task Force’s feet to the fire in this case because he does not appreciate the Task Force using a questionable prosecution to pursue goals in other criminal cases.

This is pretty lively for Ft. Worth

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It’s not every day that a GOP candidate for a House seat in Fort Worth has to explain pictures of himself in makeup and womens’ clothing.

UT Law attracts top business law prof

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Brian Leiter reports in this post that Bernard Black, the George E. Osborne Professor at Stanford Law School and a leading figure in corporate law and law and economics, has accepted an offer to teach at the University of Texas School of Law.

More on the sad case of Jamie Olis

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Larry E. Ribstein is the Richard & Marie Corman Professor of Law University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign. Professor Ribstein runs an interesting business law blog called Ideoblog, and yesterday he posted this timely item about a CLE program that he was attending in which the criminal case of former Dynegy executive Jamie Olis (previously discussed here, here and here) was being discussed. The entire post is well worth reading, and here is a sampling of his observations:

[David U. Gourevitch, defense attorney and former SEC enforcement attorney] notes that there has been a “new wave” of white collar prosecutions, with sentences “going through the roof.” The latest guidelines will lead to treason — or drug-type life sentences — for first time corporate defrauders.
[Michael Clark, a Houston litigator] re Jamie Olis: he notes that Olis had no prior record, no personal benefit. This was a standard “cookie jar reserve” case where Dynergy had structured earnings to meet Wall Street expectations. An expert witness contested the government’s damage-causation theory. He also notes that this 20-plus year sentence was without the enhancement that will be imposed in future cases under SARBOX.
Gourevitch points out that a few years ago such a case didn’t even merit an injunction. The recent prosecutions all involve common and pervasive practices. Conduct that was considered common and close to the line is now viewed by prosecutors as “way over the line.” An example is what happened with the mutual fund sentences [more on mutual funds in a later post]. Some critical differences from the past include parallel investigations, very speedy, with investigations and prosecutions unfolding in just a few months. So just as business has gotten faster, so has criminal investigation of business.

History Channel apologizes

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This earlier post relates the story of how The History Story had inexplicably ignored a generation of evidence analysis in airing a documentary earlier this year that implicated former President Lyndon B. Johnson in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The History Channel publicly apologizes this evening when it broadcasts an evaluation of the earlier documentary that concludes that it and the channel were irresponsible. The History Channel exhibits admirable integrity and contrition in apologizing for its error in broadcasting the poorly researched and highly inflammatory documentary on the Kennedy Assassination.

Lea Fastow plea bargain

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This morning, Lea Fastow — wife of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow — will learn whether federal District Judge David Hittner will accept her plea bargain with the Enron Task Force.