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Enron's Fastow assigned to La. prison
2006-11-10
Former Enron Corp. financial whiz Andrew Fastow will serve six years in a federal prison in Louisiana for plundering the company while concealing its feeble financial condition from investors. Fastow, 44, had asked that he be assigned to a federal prison in Bastrop, Texas, about 30 miles southeast of Austin. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt made that recommendation when he sentenced Fastow in September. But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which makes the final decision on where inmates are sent, assigned Fastow to the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, La., about 200 miles northeast of Houston. The detention center is part of a prison complex that includes a low security correctional institution and a satellite prison camp that houses minimum security male inmates. The entire prison complex has about 2,400 inmates. Fastow, the ex-chief financial officer who cooperated with prosecutors in other cases related to Enron's 2001 implosion, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004. But Hoyt instead sentenced him to six years, saying Fastow had already paid a heavy price for his actions. Before being sent to Louisiana, Fastow gave a deposition in a class-action lawsuit filed by investors suing investment firms and global banks they claim played key roles in Enron's collapse. Fastow was originally indicted on 98 counts, including fraud, insider trading and money laundering. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, admitting to running various schemes to hide Enron debt and inflate profits while enriching himself. At the trial earlier this year of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and the former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, Fastow testified his bosses were aware of fraudulent financial structures engineered by Fastow and his staff. Skilling and Lay were convicted in May of conspiracy and fraud. Lay's convictions were wiped out with his July death from heart disease. Skilling was sentenced last month to more than 24 years in prison. At Skilling's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake recommended the former Enron CEO be sent to a federal facility in Butner, N.C. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons Web site on Friday did not indicate that Skilling had been assigned to a prison. Skilling was ordered to home confinement until he reports to prison. Skilling's attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press on Friday. Enron, once the nation's seventh-largest company, crumbled into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001 after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions in debt or make failing ventures appear profitable. The collapse wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value and more than $2 billion in pension plans.
Court: Enron shareholders can't proceed (2007-03-19)Ex-Enron CEO Skilling reports to prison (2006-12-13)Enron's Fastow assigned to La. prison (2006-11-10)Skilling sentenced to 24 years in prison (2006-10-23)Skilling faces decades in prison (2006-10-23)
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