Justice Department to charge Fastow in Enron case
Tue Oct 1, 7:36 AM ET
Greg Farrell USA TODAY
story.news.yahoo.com
Justice Department prosecutors plan to file a criminal
complaint against former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow in Houston
on Wednesday.
The complaint includes multiple counts of financial
fraud, stemming from a series of trades that Fastow
engineered between Enron and certain partnerships
that he controlled. Fastow reaped millions of dollars
in profits from the deals, often to the detriment of
Enron and its shareholders.
According to sources close to the investigation, the
government will initially outline its case against
Fastow in a criminal complaint rather than an
indictment. USA TODAY reported last week that
Fastow would be indicted.
The difference is this:
* An indictment is a document returned to
prosecutors by a grand jury, indicating that the grand
jury thinks there's probable cause to charge an
individual with one or more crimes. Customarily, an
aggressive prosecutor will load up an indictment with
every possible charge in the hope of intimidating a
target into agreeing to plead to a smaller number of
charges.
* A criminal complaint forms the basis for an arrest.
It outlines the possible case, but prosecutors are not
committed to bringing formal charges for everything
contained in the complaint.
Once a complaint is filed, prosecutors typically have
30 days to obtain an indictment. Plea negotiations
could affect the timetable.
''In the current political climate, for the government to
return a multiple-count indictment and then dismiss
some of those counts at the time of a plea would meet with derision from
Congress and the public,'' says Jacob Frenkel of Smith Gambrell & Russell.
Through a spokesman, neither Fastow nor his attorneys would comment.
Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra also declined to comment.
Fastow will probably enter federal court in front of reporters and camera crews,
but he might avoid the humiliation of Adelphia and ImClone executives who were
brought to court in handcuffs. A source with knowledge of Wednesday's events
described it as ''perp walk lite.''
The Enron Task Force's complaint could embarrass other parties, from former
Enron executives who profited from Fastow's deals to banks that curried favor
with him.
story.news.yahoo.com
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