Fastow to Face New Enron Indictment; Other Executives May Be Included

Federal prosecutors pursuing former Enron Corp. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow said Thursday that they would file a new indictment with more charges by next month.

The Justice Department’s Enron Task Force has declined to comment, but sources have indicated that the new indictment may include charges against other Enron finance executives referred to in the original charges, and others.

The task force in a court filing asked U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt in Houston to delay until Feb. 10 a pretrial conference set for Monday.

“The government plans to seek a superseding indictment between now and then,” reads the request, which was agreed to by Fastow’s defense team.

Fastow pleaded not guilty on Nov. 6 to a 78-count indictment charging him with fraud and money laundering, all of it centering on a series of secretive off-balance-sheet partnerships he controlled as Enron’s top money man.

Prosecutors allege that he used the partnerships to bilk Enron out of tens of millions of dollars that he then took for himself, family members and other associates. Enron, meanwhile, benefited because Fastow was able to hide losses and manipulate earnings through his string of partnerships.

Other Fastow associates who are widely seen as likely additions to a superseding indictment are former Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey and former Treasurer Ben Glisan. Neither has been charged with any crime.

The two men are referred to only by their titles in the original Fastow charges, which detail a scheme whereby the three allegedly used a secret partnership to cook Enron’s books and manufacture earnings for Fastow’s main partnership, called LJM.

Prosecutors say the partnership, called Talon, was used and kept off of Enron’s books even though “Fastow and others” knew it did not qualify for that accounting treatment.

Both Glisan and Causey, through their attorneys, have denied violating accounting rules or committing any crime while at Enron.