Over four years after Enron’s descent into bankruptcy, 2006 is shaping up as the year of the Enron criminal trials.
First, in mid-January, the trial of the Enron Task Force’s legacy Enron case — i.e., the trial that everyone will remember — cranks up against former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling, and former chief accountant, Richard Causey.
Then, in May, the first retrial of defendants in this year’s mistrial in the Enron Broadband case will take place against Kevin Howard, former chief financial officer of EBS, and Michael Krautz, former senior accounting director at EBS.
Following that trial, the second retrial of one of the Enron Broadband defendants will proceed in June against Scott Yeager, the former senior vice president of business development. Finally, the final two of the five Broadband defendants — Joe Hirko, former co-CEO of Enron Broadband Services, and Rex Shelby, former senior vice president of engineering and operations at EBS, will be retried in September. Mary Flood’s article on the Enron Broadband retrials is here.
Thus, 2006 is shaping up as quite a season for Enron-related criminal trials. And you thought the NFL season lasted a long time?