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, the Enron Task Force yesterday filed a superceding indictment that added two new wire fraud charges against all six defendants and a new false statement charge against Defendant Dan Boyle, the former vice president of Enron’s Global Finance unit. Previous posts on this case may be reviewed here.
The Chronicle article on this development speculates that the superceding indictment may result in a further postponement in the trial of the case, but that’s highly unlikely. Inasmuch as the charges relate to the same transaction as the previous indictment in the case, there probably is not any unfair prejudice to the defendants in indicting them on the new charges, although the late indictment coming a month and a half before trial certainly calls into question the Task Force’s handle on the case. If the new charges would justify a postponement of the trial date for the defendants, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein would probably dismiss the new charges before he would postpone the current August 16 trial date.