Five former executives of Enron Broadband Services have been re-indicted on charges that they artificially inflated the value of the Enron Corp. unit.
In July, three of the individuals were acquitted by a federal jury on several charges. The jury deadlocked on the remaining counts, as well as on all charges against the other two individuals.
This time around, the five former executives — co-chief executive officer Joe Hirko, chief financial officer Kevin Howard, senior accounting director Michael Krautz, senior vice president of business development F. Scott Yeager, and senior vice president of engineering and operations Rex Shelby — will face three separate trials instead of one. In addition, they have been charged on fewer counts than under the original indictment, reported the Houston Chronicle.
“It’s very disappointing to hear about the indictment, especially since my client was already acquitted on the major counts,” said Tony Canales, Yeager’s lawyer, according to the Chronicle. Canales told the paper that the Enron Task Force, which had originally brought more than 100 charges against Yeager, had reduced that number to just 13.
Howard and Krautz will be retried together, beginning in May; Yeager, in June; and Hirko and Shelby, in September.
In January, former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling, and former chief accounting officer Richard Causey will go on trial for their alleged roles in the parent company’s massive accounting fraud. Part of the case against them reportedly involves wrongdoing at Enron Broadband Services.