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To: D.B. Cooper who wrote (8811)	8/20/2002 9:51:13 PM
From: D.B. Cooper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13815

This may be old news However I just found it Good Luck Former Enron Exec to Plead Guilty Tue Aug 20, 8:33 PM ET By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A top lieutenant to Enron Corp.'s former chief financial officer will plead guilty to criminal charges, the first admission of guilt by an executive of the fallen energy-trading company, sources close to the investigation said Tuesday. Michael Kopper, former managing director of Enron Global Finance, plans to enter guilty pleas Wednesday in Houston to single charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, two sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He will also turn over $12 million in illegally obtained assets, according to one of the sources. Kopper, 37, was a top deputy to ex-chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. He became a focus of investigators because of his involvement in Enron-financed partnerships, accounting devices that allowed the company to shift debt and other liabilities off its books. As part of the plea agreement, Kopper has agreed to cooperate with investigators, a potential watershed event in the investigation since he has knowledge of Enron's innermost workings and financial dealings. Kopper's attorney did not immediately return calls seeking comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department ( news - web sites) declined to comment. The plea is the first outward sign of progress in the Enron investigation. Other major companies under investigation, including WorldCom, Arthur Andersen and Adelphia, all have seen executives charged. Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Kopper is just the first of many executives who will be charged. "Clearly this is just the first shoe to drop, based on the information our committee has in its possession," said Johnson, who works for committee chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. "We have a wealth of information in our possession suggesting a number of people at Enron took part in fraudulent activities." Kopper has not been charged. In a plea agreement, the government generally brings charges just before a guilty plea is entered in court. One of the sources said the plea offers no guarantee that prosecutors will not seek prison time for Kopper. When Houston-based Enron declared bankruptcy last December, it was the largest such filing in U.S. history. Millions of investors lost money and thousands of current and former Enron workers lost the great bulk of their retirement savings. Enron's collapse put the Bush administration in an awkward position. President Bush ( news - web sites) has received more than $550,000 from Enron, its employees and their relatives during his political career — the most from any source. He is also a friend of former chief executive Ken Lay. Attorney General John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) also received significant campaign contributions from the company over the course of his career. Ashcroft has stepped aside from the investigation. Enron's partnerships were largely financed by company stock and had no real value. An internal Enron investigation concluded that some of the partnerships, created by Fastow, were used to hide debt and inflate Enron's profits by more than $1 billion, misleading investors. Government investigators are looking into whether Enron managers, from former chairman Kenneth Lay on down, knew that the network of partnerships was being used to conceal huge debts. Kopper had run a partnership called Chewco, named for the "Star Wars" character Chewbacca, until he left Enron in 2001 to run another Fastow-created entity called LJM2. An investigation by Enron's board determined Kopper and his domestic partner used Enron partnerships to turn a $125,000 personal investment into $10.5 million in less than three years. Officials with former Enron auditing firm Arthur Andersen LLP said they learned early last November that Kopper's partner owned part of the 3 percent of Chewco that should have been held wholly by investors unrelated to Enron to allow the company under accounting rules to keep the partnership off its books. In February, Kopper invoked his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify about the downfall of Enron before the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee. Kopper is a native of Long Island, N.Y., and a 1986 graduate of Duke University. He later attended the London School of Economics and arrived at Enron in 1994.