Enron Criminal Trial Is Postponed

A federal judge on Monday delayed the first Enron criminal trial until August, saying on the day it was to begin that the case involving six defendants would take longer than he expected.

U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein rescheduled the trial for Aug. 16 after conferring with lawyers for both sides.

A month ago, Werlein had told the lawyers the case had to be finished by July 12, because of a scheduling conflict. The judge did not say what it was, but lawyers involved in the case said it was a planned vacation.

Werlein said he and the lawyers did not discuss the recent motions in reaction to the government’s last-minute release of evidence from its top cooperating witness, former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow.

That information prompted several defendants to push for a delay to revamp their defenses and, in some cases, ask that the charges be dismissed.

A pool of 150 potential jurors had already assembled Monday for the criminal conspiracy trial in Houston.

Former Enron Corp. executives Dan Boyle and Sheila Kahanek and Merrill Lynch & Co. ex-bankers Daniel Bayly, Robert Furst, William Fuhs and James Brown are charged in the case.

It centers on Enron’s 1999 sale to Merrill and subsequent repurchase of electricity-generating barges in Nigeria. Merrill reaped a 22% return in the deal.

Federal prosecutors say the deal was really a loan disguised as a sale to help Enron improperly meet a year-end earnings target by adding $12 million in profit at the last minute.

Fastow promised Merrill that someone would buy the barges within six months, and he used an Enron side partnership he controlled to make good on his word, prosecutors say.

The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and falsify books and records, for which each faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Fuhs also is charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements, and Brown with obstruction and perjury.