Posted on 09/26/2006 11:02:56 AM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
HOUSTON - Andrew Fastow, one of the key figures in Enron Corp.'s collapse, was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday.
Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004. But the judge said he deserved a lighter sentence because Fastow has been persecuted following Enron's collapse and that his family has suffered enough.
"Prosecution is necessary, but persecution was not," said U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt. "These factors call for mercy."
Fastow was taken immediately into custody after the judge rejected his request to turn himself in at a later date. The judge did allow him to hug his wife, then Fastow was taken away in handcuffs.
"I know I deserve punishment," Fastow said. "I accept it without bitterness."
His attorneys, David Gerger and John Keker, had asked for a lesser sentence, citing Fastow's admission of guilt and his help in the federal government's successful prosecution of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and the former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling.
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.
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. He also surrendered nearly $30 million in cash and property.
At their trial, Fastow testified Lay and Skilling 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 attorneys are working to erase his convictions since his July 5 death from heart disease. Skilling is to be sentenced next month.
Fastow's wife, Lea, pleaded guilty in 2004 to a misdemeanor tax crime and served a year in prison for helping him hide ill-gotten gains from his schemes.
Rod Jordan, chairman of the Severed Enron Employee Coalition, said some former Enron workers believe Fastow should be forgiven because unlike Skilling, he admitted his guilt and "is taking his medicine."
Former Enron workers like Diana Peters said they are grateful for the chance to speak at Fastow's sentencing.
"It will help bring closure I think once he starts serving his sentence," said Peters, who can't attend Fastow's sentencing, but submitted a letter to the court detailing how Enron's collapse caused her financial hardship.
I served as a juror in this judge's courtroom about 12 years ago on a federal civil rights case. He was completely fair and impartial. A credit to his calling.
Fastow was the prime architect of the crimes committed at Enron and of the company's downfall.
But he turned state's evidence and the judge felt sorry for him, so he got barely more than half of the sentence on charges that were already reduced.
He should have gotten 25 to life for what he did.
Bernie Ebbers did far less and he's going to die in prison.
Check out Fastow dumping properties to relatives and friends for safe keeping.
HARRIS COUNTY REAL PROPERTY RECORDS:
Click on "Search Dtabase" --> REAL PROPERTY --> enter "fastow"
http://www.cclerk.hctx.net/
"Fastow's wife, Lea, pleaded guilty in 2004 to a misdemeanor tax crime and served a year in prison for helping him hide ill-gotten gains from his schemes."
Excuse me?! And the judge called for leniency? I'll be dipped in sh*t.
Lay and Skilling knew so that makes them accessories and just as bad.
If I propose we rob a bank together but I know how to crack a safe and you don't but you take half the money anyway you are still guilty.
All three are/were scum.
Is the Enron judge Sim Lake? (I can't remember.)
Lay was not aware - Skilling purposely fudged his presentations to the board to represent matters as being on the up-and-up.
As the house of cards was coming down, Lay was still buying shares and he never sold them.
Lay was derelict in his duties as CEO, but it is hardly clear that he actively particpated in Fastow's schemes. His crime was not asking enough questions.
Lay's situation was not analogous to a bankrobber in league with a safecracker.
You're right. Is there anything to the rumour that Fastow has hidden properties and assets?
He tried to gift tons of assets to relatives and friends, but since his wife made a deal with prosecutors to get only one year in jail in exchange for providing testimony against her husband, it's likely that much of this has been tracked down.
Fastow gave up ~$30 million in cash & property as part of his plea deal 2 years ago.
There were some fireworks in the courtroom, as I recall, but all jurors left thinking that justice had been done.
Yup. Even Fastow thought he was going to get 10 years and had said so publicly.
While it's little consolation, there are also two extra years of probation tacked on to the 6 year sentence. However, they're already talking about his having a good chance of shaving some time off of even that.
As disgusting a human being as he is, and I'm talking from a standpoint of many years before Enron - he did give enough info to nail Skilling and Lay - so I assume the DOJ felt it was worth it.
That must be why he is in a separate court, US District court, with Judge Hoyt rather than Judge Lake, who had most of, if not all, those cases brought by the Enron Task Force.
There are still beaucoup civil trials to come later, after Skilling's sentencing Oct. 23 and Causey's right before that.
At least they took Fastow immediately today, in handcuffs, for another perp walk, even though he had asked for another week for winding down his affairs. They let him hug Lea. His rabbi was there, too.
He is said to be addicted to anti-depressants and has asked for treatment for the addiction (not sure that's even a valid ailment), which means he will "get to" go to the cushy Bastrop treatment center for part of his incarceration.
Allegedly, his completion of that will count some more time off his sentence. I'm having a hard time figuring out how someone can abuse anti-depressants, since they don't do anything for you except low levels of mood elevation. You can't take "more" and feel "high."
Addiction would indicate increasing levels of usage and if you pop enough of those things, you'll just die - not walk around addicted, I wouldn't think. If he seems as though he "can't live without them," wouldn't everyone who is prescribed them feel the same way?
I agree he should've gotten 25 years, plus - he's been conning people in that same way for at least 25 years, with banks before Enron. His wife did, too.
That said, I surely didn't rejoice in Ken Lay's death - I wanted him to serve every bit of the time he was to get at sentencing. If I could in any way fight the "abatement" hearings to wipe out his conviction, I would. I truly hope cooler heads prevail in that, but as I understand it, the civil suits can still go forward against his estate.
It will just be much harder to win more money from the estate without those convictions to point to - and now as the survivor, Linda gets half of what's there.
I cannot believe it's possible to "act like they never happened" - but lawyers seem to be able to do a whole lot of things I can't believe nowadays.
There aren't very many transactions in there for Andy or Lea, actually. Check them again.
Yes - Fastow's case was an exception because he plead out and turned state's evidence.
Where in the world do you get the idea that Lay was "still buying shares and never sold them"?
Between August and October, 2001, as the company stock was plummeting, he sold 918,000 shares worth $70 million!
I doubt if he does, but I'm sure Lea's family does.
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There aren't very many transactions in there for Andy or Lea, actually. Check them again.
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I found quite a few. Did you look at both grantor and grantee? And these are just their Houston properties. What I saw was that they transferred a number of properties to relatives right before Fastow was charged.
They weren't deed transfers, they were notices and assignments of rents, HOA restrictions, things like that - and only for the two houses in Southampton and River Oaks which had been mostly refinances, taking money out. And only two sets, back and forth to Lea or with Lea, were after 2001. One was even to another Enron person.
I only looked at Grantor, because I didn't figure he was the Grantee, buying anything.
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