This might just break things open.
http://www.chron.com/...
Prosecutors are expected to gain valuable ammunition in their case against Enron's former top two officials when ex-Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey enters a guilty plea this afternoon.
And it seems he's quite a catch:
Causey was scheduled to go to trial Jan. 17 along with former Chairman Ken Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling. All three men previously have pleaded not guilty to charges ranging from fraud to conspiracy related to schemes that led to the company's 2001 bankruptcy.
[snip]
Like former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, who agreed to cooperate with the government in 2004, he has intimate knowledge of the company, particularly in its last days before it filed for bankruptcy.
Causey was responsible for the company's public accounting statements, reported directly to Skilling for years and took part in conference calls with Lay in fall 2001 as Enron fell from being one of the world's largest companies to one of the country's largest bankruptcies.
Unlike Fastow, however, Causey doesn't have the taint of having tried to personally enrich himself through side deals, as Fastow admitted in his plea agreement.
"To have another high ranking officer who knows the numbers but who hasn't been demonized the same way Fastow has serves the government's case very well," said Robert Mintz, a New Jersey-based legal expert who follows the case. "From the standpoint of wanting to go into the trial from a position of strength, this is not what Skilling and Lay were hoping for on the eve of trial."
It's looking like it's been worth the wait. About time this trial is finally moving foreward.
Losing an ally of Causey's stature so close to trial could throw off Lay and Skilling's defense and leave them scrambling to prepare for his likely testimony. But a Causey plea deal was hardly unexpected and had been rumored since shortly after he was indicted last year.
Causey faces 36 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, security fraud, insider trading, money laundering and making false statements on financial reports.
[snip]
Lay, Skilling and Causey had a joint defense agreement, meaning they agreed to share information for trial. Terms of such agreements vary widely, but it could mean some information Causey became privy to through the Lay and Skilling teams would be off limits, or at least could only be used with certain restrictions, if he cooperates with the government.
David Berg, a Houston defense attorney who has followed the case, said the Lay and Skilling teams may try and compare Causey to David Duncan, the former Arthur Andersen executive who pleaded guilty in connection to the 2002 document shredding case. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a guilty verdict against the accounting firm and Duncan's guilty plea was withdrawn.
"Duncan pled guilty, but when he got on the stand it was pretty clear he was innocent," Berg said, referring to testimony Duncan gave under cross examination. "I think the main hope of the defense will be to make the case that Causey cratered under pressure, that he just pled so he could avoid a long jail sentence."
Wait for this, wait for Fitzmas, wait for impeachment - wait wait wait. Damn it, don't they know I got ADHD and have near zero patience?!?
