Instigator of Enron shady deals pleads guilty to conspiracy

ANDREW FASTOW, the chief architect of the shady deals that brought down Enron, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy in a deal that could take prosecutors to the top of the corporate ladder at the scandal-ridden company.

The plea by the former Enron finance chief called for a 10-year sentence and for him to help prosecutors who have targeted but not charged the executives who once occupied the most opulent offices on the company's top floor: former chairman Kenneth Lay and former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling.

Enron was the US's seventh-biggest company in 2001, and its bankruptcy was the largest such filing in US history at the time. Its stock once traded at above $90, but sank to mere pennies amid the collapse.