Legal News

Former Enron Exec Could Get Home Confinement After Plea

By Amir Efrati

Rather than give the U.S. government a third bite at the apple, former Enron Broadband Services CFO Kevin Howard pleaded guilty today to one count of falsifying books and records nearly six years after he was first indicted. Here are links to the plea agreement and DOJ’s press release.

What’s the EBS case all about and how does it differ from the main cases against top Enron Corp executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling? Thankfully, former LB colleague Peter Lattman put together this primer in 2007.

This Chron story has the low down on Howard (pictured), whose first trial ended in a hung jury. His second ended in conviction, which was vacated after the 5th Circuit took issue with the government’s use of the honest-services statute (background on that troublesome statute is here and here.) A third trial was looming.

In today’s plea agreement, which must be approved by the court, the 46-year-old Howard admitted to helping falsify Enron’s financial statement in 2000 by improperly booking earnings related to a deal known as "Project Braveheart” in order to meet earnings targets allegedly set by then-Enron Corp CEO Skilling. In exchange, Howard will serve a maximum of 12 months of home confinement.

The plea comes several weeks after Skilling filed his cert petition to the Supremes related to his fraud conviction.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 01, 2009 (boomark / email).