Former ENRON Finance Chief Arrested

[goofyfish]

Former ENRON CFO Andrew Fastow cuts a dashing
figure in his $3,000 suit and $35 handcuffs.

                &#160

HOUSTON (AP) — The financial engineer behind the complex deals that helped hide Enron's massive debt was charged Wednesday with fraud, money laundering and conspiring to inflate the company's profits and enrich himself at the company's expense.

Andrew Fastow, 40, surrendered Wednesday morning to FBI agents and had a court date later in the day. Under an agreement with his lawyers, federal prosecutors were expected to recommend that he be released on $5 million bond. (Full text here).

OK, class, sharpen your pencils, we're going to have a little pop quiz.

Question:

• Since 1999, Ken Lay of Enron gave over $380,000 to various Republicans and Republican causes. This includes $25,000 to the John Ashcroft Victory Fund. During the same period, Andrew Fastow of Enron gave $2,200, including $1,200 to George W. Bush and $1,000 to some other guy we don't even know -- and nothing to the Victory Fund.
  
  Determine whether Mr. Lay or Mr. Fastow is more likely to take a "perp walk" arranged by the Justice Department, which is run by Mr. Ashcroft.

Time's up!

_____________
Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace.
It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man;
it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him.

• -- King Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)

 

[prozak]

Fastow will walk too. He's connected to a wealthy Jewish family that is connected to G.W. Bush's family.

 

[postoak]

Well, I hope he doesn't walk, and I hope he's just the first of several that go to trial. I suspect he WON'T walk, but will get what amounts to a slap on the wrist, something like a year in a cushy federal prison and although they may get some of the money back, he's probably squirreled enough away to still be rich when he gets out.

 

[goofyfish]

I feel rather strongly that Fastow will start singing like a canary to implicate Kenneth Lay. There is no way he will insist, a la Sherron Watkins, "Mr. Lay knew nothing about these deeds." Fastow has already said that Skilling and Lay had full knowledge of the shell companies and everything else.

Peace.

_____________
Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace.
It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man;
it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him.

• -- King Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)