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 Force prosecutors informed the new grand jurors that they should expect to remain working on the Enron case until at least November, 2006.
The first Enron grand jury indicted 23 people in connection with the Enron scandal. Six of those 23 pled guilty, five were convicted in the Nigerian Barge case — which is remarkably the only criminal case that has gone to trial to date in connection with the Enron affair — and one of the two former Enron employee-defendants in that trial was acquitted. The other 11 indicted persons still await trial.
Quare: If it takes over three years to figure out how to indict someone, then doesn’t that length of time, in and of itself, indicate that reasonable doubt exists that a crime occurred in regard to matters under investigation?
Meanwhile, in regard to the Nigerian Barge case, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce took the unusual step of filing an amicus curie brief in the case this past week on the issue of sentencing. The Chamber of Commerce brief focuses on the market loss issue, which could have a big impact on U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein‘s decision on sentencing the convicted defendants in the case.