Payment to go to ex-Enron staff

Former Enron Corp. energy trader Timothy Belden will pay $2.1 million to former employees financially harmed in the company’s collapse, a law firm representing the employees said Tuesday.

Belden pleaded guilty in 2002 to federal charges that he manipulated California’s energy market.

He agreed to forfeit the money under an agreement with federal prosecutors, law firm Cooley Godward Kronish said.

The money, from Belden’s deferred pay and bonuses, will go to a committee representing former employees in the company’s bankruptcy case in New York.

Belden, former head of Enron’s Portland trading office, pleaded guilty to taking part in a scheme that drove up California’s energy costs in 2000-01. The price increase caused blackouts and drove California’s two biggest investor-owned utilities into bankruptcy.