Judge grants leniency to former Enron finance chief

Andrew Fastow, the mastermind behind financial schemes that doomed the US Enron Corporation, was sentenced to six years in prison – four years less than he had agreed to in a plea bargain – by a Houston judge who felt he deserved leniency.

Fastow, the former chief financial officer who co-operated with prosecutors in other cases related to Enron’s 2001 implosion, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004.