A conviction in the Enron case

The rats do turn on each other, don't they?

The former chief executive of two of Enron Corp.'s top divisions pleaded guilty yesterday to insider trading, agreeing to forfeit $8 million and to cooperate with federal investigators probing widespread earnings manipulation at the bankrupt Houston company.

The plea by David W. Delainey, 37, makes him the highest-ranking former officer at Enron to admit wrongdoing. As the leader of Enron North America, which traded energy and other commodities, and later Enron Energy Services, which sold long-term energy contracts to commercial customers, Delainey had contact with former chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling and other top managers at a time prosecutors say the company's finances began to erode.

...The schemes that Delainey has described to investigators involve more than $1 billion in losses -- an amount so large that attorneys close to the case think senior executives would have noticed.

I wonder what the cut-off figure is for when a senior executive would notice.

Delainey faces as many as 10 years in prison and an additional $1 million fine under the single criminal charge, although lawyers said he probably will receive far less time in exchange for the information he provides to investigators.

Prosecutors continue to examine what Skilling and former chairman Kenneth L. Lay may have known about the steps that managers of different Enron operating units took to prop up the stock price from 1998 to 2001. Both men have denied wrongdoing, and neither has been charged with a crime.

If ol' Delainey starts singin' for less time, is it possible that Kenny Boy may yet get to spend his earned jail time, too?

"It is inconceivable that these dollar amounts could have been moved without top management knowing about it," said Philip H. Hilder, a Houston lawyer who represents several witnesses in the Enron probe. "The question is, what was their understanding of what was behind these numbers and what they meant?"

Well, there's a loophole for Kenny Boy. This could be a long, long, long case. Kenny Boy could die of old age before anybody gets near him with handcuffs.

I apologize for this being a Washington Post article since the Post makes you go through a silly signing-in form that does nothing for them, since you can put any bogus information in it, and only annoys the prospective reader.

....but hey, Post, do what you want....you will anyway.