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 Force prosecutors, who have become quite chummy with the Fastows since former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, cut a deal to testify against other former executives at Enron, recommended that Mrs. Fastow’s sentence be five months. Judge Hittner, who I believe has never been pleased that the Task Force brought a marginal criminal case against a wife to put pressure on her husband, overruled prosecutors’ recommendation
Judge Hittner criticized prosecutors for vascillating between an original indictment of six felonies and a final charge of just one misdemeanor, suggesting that justice may not have been served in either instance. “Such maneuvering as is present in this case might be seen as a blatant manipulation of the justice system,” Judge Hittner said on the record.
The first Enron-related criminal case actually to go to trial since the Arthur Andersen prosecution in early 2002 is coming up in early June. That is the case that is known as the Nigerian Barge case, which is discussed in more detail here.