Former Enron financial mastermind Mr Andrew Fastow is negotiating a plea bargain, and another former Enron executive is expected to face charges soon, sources close to the case said today.
As prosecutors work their way up the management hierarchy at the bankrupt energy trader in a massive fraud case now two years old, the sources said former Enron chief accountant Mr Richard Causey was expected to be charged soon.
But timing and details of any action to be brought against Mr Causey depend partly on the Fastow case, the sources said.
Scheduled to go to trial in April, Mr Fastow is negotiating a plea bargain deal that could send him to prison for 10 years, said sources.
He is accused of engineering complex financial deals that hid Enron's debt and boosted its stock price. Mr Fastow has pleaded not guilty to 98 counts of fraud, money laundering, insider trading and falsification of accounting records.
A federal judge in Houston has rejected a proposed plea bargain that would have resulted in a five-month prison sentence for Mr Fastow's wife,
Mrs Lea Fastow, who was once Enron's assistant treasurer, the sources said. Mrs Lea Fastow has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts, including false tax reporting and conspiracy in her husband's dealings. She is scheduled to go to trial next month.
If Fastow cuts a plea deal, it is unclear if he would agree to cooperate with investigators. If he does, some lawyers said, his former superiors would have immediate cause to worry about what he might tell authorities.
Former Enron chairman Mr Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Mr Jeffrey Skilling have not been charged in the two-year-old case, although several mid-level executives have pleaded guilty, agreed to cooperate or face trial.