Leader of Justice's Enron Team to Step Down
nytimes.com
March 2, 2004
By KURT EICHENWALD
Just weeks after securing an indictment against the former chief executive of Enron, the Justice Department task force investigating the collapse of the company is reshaping itself.
Leslie R. Caldwell, who has led the task force since it was formed, will step down this week to begin pursuing a job in the private sector, Justice Department officials said yesterday. Her longtime deputy, Andrew Weissmann, will oversee the task force.
Other prominent prosecutors on the task force, including Samuel W. Buell, who was directly involved in the investigation of the former chief executive, Jeffrey K. Skilling, are also moving on.
Changes in the Enron task force were widely expected as its primary responsibilities shift from investigating potential crimes to trying to prove criminal charges in court. While investigations into the collapse are continuing, with some former Enron executives reporting increased activity by government officials in recent weeks, the prosecutors are preparing for multiple criminal trials involving charges related to the collapse.
To assist in that effort, the task force in the last nine months has recruited an array of new prosecutors both to try the cases already brought and to handle the continuing investigation. The new prosecutors have held senior positions in United States attorney's offices across the country, including in Brooklyn, Chicago and San Francisco.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. Caldwell said that with so many of the major investigations now moving toward trial, it seemed an appropriate time to depart.
"It's the right time to leave," she said. "When I signed on, it was never my intention to stay for the duration of the entire case."
Ms. Caldwell said that she had long ago told her deputy, Mr. Weissmann, that she planned to move on once a final decision was reached on the case involving Mr. Skilling.
"I had planned to do this after things got to a certain point, which was the Skilling case," she said.
At this point, Ms. Caldwell does not know where she might end up working. The Enron case was so sprawling, involving so many law firms, that she said she did not think she could ethically begin searching for a private-sector job before stepping down from her position on the task force.
For the near future, she said, she will remain with the Justice Department while looking for other opportunities.
Under Ms. Caldwell, the task force brought charges against 29 defendants, including 20 former Enron executives. Nine defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury, including Andrew S. Fastow, the former chief financial officer; Ben F. Glisan Jr., the former treasurer; and David Delainey, the former chief executive of two Enron divisions.
Before joining the Enron task force, Ms. Caldwell made a national name for herself as a fraud prosecutor. She has been involved in more than 50 jury trials and a number of complex investigations. She began in the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn, where she met Mr. Weissmann. Later, as a prosecutor in San Francisco, she oversaw the indictments of the former co-presidents of HBO & Company, a Georgia medical software company, on charges that they engaged in an accounting fraud to inflate the company profits before selling it to McKesson.
Mr. Weissmann, the new director of the task force, was intimately involved in most aspects of the task force's work. He was the lead trial lawyer in the prosecution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm on a charge of obstruction of justice related to its destruction of Enron documents. He also led the investigation of Mr. Fastow and Mr. Glisan.
Indeed, colleagues have described Mr. Weissmann as the driving force behind a series of charges and settlements related to a 1999 transaction involving what the government says was a bogus sale of a Nigerian power barge to Merrill Lynch & Company. That transaction, which Enron used to report higher earnings that year, has led to the indictment of six executives from Enron and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Weissmann was the lead negotiator in a settlement with Merrill, which resulted in the installation of a Justice Department monitor to oversee a series of sweeping changes at the firm.
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Weissmann praised Ms. Caldwell as a superior prosecutor.
"One of the great things about working on the task force was being able to work with Leslie," he said. "She is terrific, with incredible judgment, and who is just wonderful on a personal level."
Mr. Weissmann said that he did not expect any significant changes in the way the task force went about its work.
"Leslie and I have very similar styles," he said, "in part because Leslie helped train me."
The departure of Ms. Caldwell, however, should not be seen as a sign that the Enron task force is winding down, Mr. Weissmann said.
"There's a lot still to do, there are a lot of cases, and several investigative avenues that we are still doing," he said.
Asked when he thought the inquiries might be wrapped up, Mr. Weissmann replied, "I wish I could tell you." |
