Last top Enron scandal executive jailed

Richard Causey, the last of the top Enron Corporation executives to learn his punishment, has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for his role in one of the biggest corporate scandals in US history.

Causey, the energy trading company’s former chief accounting officer, pleaded guilty in December to securities fraud two weeks before he was to be tried along with Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling on conspiracy, fraud and other charges.

“There were improper things done at Enron. Some of those things were done by me. For that, I’m sorry,” Causey said before US District Judge Sim Lake sentenced him in Houston, Texas.

“As God is my witness, I never did anything intentionally to enrich myself or hurt the company or its employees.”

After Causey, 46, serves his five years six months in prison, he will have to serve two years’ probation and pay a $25,000 dollars (€19,522) fine that will be distributed to Enron’s victims.

Causey had already agreed to pay €1.25m (€976,120) to the victims’ funds and forfeited a claim to about 250,000 dollars (€195,234) in deferred compensation

“I’m confident you will come out and be a credit to your family,” Lake told Causey.

The maximum penalty for securities fraud is 10 years in prison and a fine of €1m (€780,935) or twice the amount illegally gained.

Causey’s sentencing came less than a month after ex-CEO Skilling was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison. It also came a week after Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer, was sentenced to six years. Fastow had testified against Skilling and Lay, who were convicted in May of conspiracy and fraud. Lay’s convictions were wiped out with his July death from heart disease.

Prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler said the government could only recommend a modest reduction in sentence for Causey, who did not testify in the Lay-Skilling trial, though he was on the defence witness list.

“Mr. Causey bore tremendous responsibility to Enron employees and investors,” she said. “And he abrogated that responsibility and that caused harm to thousands of employees and investors.”

Reid Weingarten, Causey’s defense lawyer, argued his client’s guilty plea greatly simplified the government’s case against Lay and Skilling because it laid out complicated details about how the company kept its books.

After the court hearing, Weingarten said his client was given a “harsh sentence”.

Causey’s wife and children cried after the sentence was announced. Causey will remain free on bond until he has to report to prison in four to six weeks.

Causey, the government’s 16th co-operating witness who entered a guilty plea, had faced more than 30 counts of conspiracy, fraud, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering.

In his guilty plea, Causey admitted that he and other senior Enron managers made various false public findings and statements.

Still to be sentenced are Mark Koenig, Enron’s former investor relations director, and Michael Kopper, an Enron managing director and Fastow’s once-trusted top aide.

Enron, once the seventh-largest US company, crumbled into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001 after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions in debts or make failing ventures appear profitable.