Posted on 02/18/2004 6:59:56 PM PST by Bobby777
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ - news) chief executive Jeff Skilling likely was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury and was expected to surrender to the FBI (news - web sites) in Houston on Thursday, a newspaper reported.
The Houston Chronicle cited unnamed sources saying that Skilling, 50, was believed to have been named in a sealed indictment handed up to U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy by the grand jury foreman.
The grand jury, which was formed nearly two years ago for the Enron cases that followed the former energy giant's collapse into bankruptcy, met Tuesday and Wednesday with Enron Task Force prosecutors, the newspaper said in its online edition.
At the prosecutors' request, Stacy ordered her courtroom cleared before receiving Wednesday's indictment, court staffers said.
Skilling has denied any wrongdoing during his tenure at Enron, which went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2001 amid revelations that company officials had cooked the books to hide debt, inflate profits and boost its stock price.
Last month, former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow pleaded guilty to two fraud counts and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a 10-year jail sentence.
Shortly after Fastow's plea, former chief accounting officer Rick Causey was indicted on several criminal counts, but pleaded not guilty.
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