Bankers To Be Retried In Enron Sales Sham
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Three former Merrill Lynch & Co. bankers will be retried in January in an Enron Corp. case over sham sales of power-generating barges off Nigeria, a judge said.
U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein yesterday set trial for January 28 in Houston federal court after learning plea talks have been unsuccessful. Lawyers for the bankers, whose convictions were reversed by an appeals court last year, said they couldn’t persuade the government to turn the charges into a civil lawsuit that could bring money damages but no prison time.
“This remains an ongoing criminal case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Spencer said. “In overturning the convictions, the appeals court didn’t say no crime was committed. There have been people who have been convicted in this crime. “
The defendants face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The bankers were convicted in November 2004 of allegedly helping Enron inflate its 1999 earnings.
