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Former Enron CFO may soon surrender

Enron Corp former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow plans to surrender in Houston as soon as tomorrow to FBI agents to face charges related to the energy trader's collapse, people familiar with the case said.

Fastow will be taken to the federal courthouse where prosecutors from the Justice Department's Enron Task Force will charge him, the people said.

Fastow created and ran partnerships for the bankrupt energy trader that were used to hide US$1 billion in losses. He is to be charged in a criminal complaint with defrauding shareholders through a secret agreement in which Enron would protect his LJM partnership from losses, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified people involved in the case.

His arrest advances efforts to prosecute a number of unrelated corporate fraud cases that came to light after Enron's December bankruptcy. Since then, the government has charged executives at Adelphia Communications Corp and WorldCom Inc with fraud.

Fastow is "the big trophy on the corporate accounting side," said Jacob Frenkel, a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyer.

Fastow's lawyer, John Keker, didn't return messages left at his law firm, Keker & Van Nest, in San Francisco. Gordon Andrew, Fastow's spokesman, declined to comment on the case.

In August, former Enron executive Michael Kopper pleaded guilty to fraud and money-laundering conspiracies, and implicated Fastow in a scheme to defraud investors.

Fastow's ability to work out a plea agreement with prosecutors likely depends in part on how much information he can give prosecutors investigating Enron former Chairman Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

In July, President George W. Bush established a team to fight financial crime. Since then, the Justice Department has opened more than 100 investigations into suspected corporate fraud and charged more than 150 people. More than 45 defendants have been convicted or intend to plead guilty, Bush announced last week.
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