Enron chief faces 42 charges

Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling today faced charges accusing him of being involved in wideranging schemes to mislead US government regulators and investors about the company’s earnings.

Skilling, who resigned less than four months before the company collapsed in scandal in 2001, surrendered to the FBI in Houston today and was taken in handcuffs to the federal court to face criminal charges related to the company’s failure.

The 42 count indictment accuses Skilling, 50, and Richard Causey, Enron’s former chief accounting officer, of taking part in the schemes to mislead regulators and investors.

Causey, 44, was indicted a month ago and is free on bail.

Skilling was named in 40 of the counts, 10 of them specifically accusing him of insider trading from April 2000 through September 2001, which was about a month after he quit Houston-based Enron.

The indictment also mentions former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal prosecutors, and former treasurer Ben Glisan, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and became the first former Enron executive put behind bars.

The indictment makes no mention of former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay.