Four Former El Paso Traders to Plead Guilty

Four former El Paso Corp. natural gas traders will plead guilty to criminal charges for reporting bogus trade prices to an industry publication and will cooperate with a federal probe, prosecutors said.

The charges were unveiled in U.S. Magistrate Court in the Southern District of Texas. The four ex-traders -- Christopher Bakkenist, 41, Dallas Dean, 60, Donald Guilbault, 51, and William Ham, 45 -- could each face up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine for the single count of false reporting.