I cant believe we made a deal with this sleazeball. Anyone else feel like puking?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060307/us_nm/enron_trial_fastow_dc_3;_ylt=AltP29URcqbMLN388jr44bEkkKQB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Ex-Enron CFO says believed he was "hero"
By Matt Daily 1 hour, 34 minutes ago
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, the financial mastermind of the energy trader's most illicit deals, testified on Tuesday he believed he was a hero by helping the company inflate profits.
Fastow took the witness stand as the government's star witness in the trial of former CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay and wasted no time in linking the two men to the crimes that drove the once-seventh largest U.S. company to bankruptcy.
"I thought I was being a hero for Enron," Fastow calmly said in a steady voice. "At the time, I thought I was helping myself and helping Enron to make its numbers."
Fastow, 44, is the highest ranking executive to testify against Skilling and Lay, who together face more than three dozen charges of conspiracy, fraud and insider-trading linked to the then-largest ever U.S. bankruptcy in December 2001.
Enron's dramatic fall from Wall Street darling to corporate pariah was the first in a wave of scandals that rocked U.S. business and led to the adoption of stricter disclosure laws.
Fastow has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and will serve a 10-year sentence under an agreement with the government. His wife, Lea, served a one-year jail term for tax fraud that derived from his case.
He also agreed to forfeit nearly $28 million of the money he received at Enron.
Lay, 63, and Skilling, 52, have denied they took part in any crimes and have blamed Fastow for the company's implosion.
But Fastow said the pair approved the off-the-books partnerships he managed and were well aware they were used to hide billions of dollars of debt.
Fastow said a modestly sized $16 million partnership he initially created to help Enron manipulate its earnings was replicated on a much larger scale at Skilling's urging, and eventually raised $386 million from investors to buy Enron assets.
"He said to me 'Get as much of that juice as you can,"' Fastow testified. "The juice was the equity, but we were using the juice to increase earnings of Enron Corp. so we could report the numbers we wanted to report."
Those private equity funds, named LJM1 and LJM2, earned Fastow millions of dollars in fees and profits as they bought assets from Enron, providing the company with money it reported as earnings.
Lay, Skilling and Enron's board of directors agreed to waive conflict of interest issues in letting Fastow operate the partnerships even while he was serving as one of the company's highest officers because it facilitated business deals the company needed.
But the company did not publicly disclose Fastow's role in the partnerships, referring only vaguely to them in a footnote in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
"We were using them to inflate our earnings and I don't think we wanted to show people what we were doing," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060307/us_nm/enron_trial_fastow_dc_3;_ylt=AltP29URcqbMLN388jr44bEkkKQB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Ex-Enron CFO says believed he was "hero"
By Matt Daily 1 hour, 34 minutes ago
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, the financial mastermind of the energy trader's most illicit deals, testified on Tuesday he believed he was a hero by helping the company inflate profits.
Fastow took the witness stand as the government's star witness in the trial of former CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay and wasted no time in linking the two men to the crimes that drove the once-seventh largest U.S. company to bankruptcy.
"I thought I was being a hero for Enron," Fastow calmly said in a steady voice. "At the time, I thought I was helping myself and helping Enron to make its numbers."
Fastow, 44, is the highest ranking executive to testify against Skilling and Lay, who together face more than three dozen charges of conspiracy, fraud and insider-trading linked to the then-largest ever U.S. bankruptcy in December 2001.
Enron's dramatic fall from Wall Street darling to corporate pariah was the first in a wave of scandals that rocked U.S. business and led to the adoption of stricter disclosure laws.
Fastow has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and will serve a 10-year sentence under an agreement with the government. His wife, Lea, served a one-year jail term for tax fraud that derived from his case.
He also agreed to forfeit nearly $28 million of the money he received at Enron.
Lay, 63, and Skilling, 52, have denied they took part in any crimes and have blamed Fastow for the company's implosion.
But Fastow said the pair approved the off-the-books partnerships he managed and were well aware they were used to hide billions of dollars of debt.
Fastow said a modestly sized $16 million partnership he initially created to help Enron manipulate its earnings was replicated on a much larger scale at Skilling's urging, and eventually raised $386 million from investors to buy Enron assets.
"He said to me 'Get as much of that juice as you can,"' Fastow testified. "The juice was the equity, but we were using the juice to increase earnings of Enron Corp. so we could report the numbers we wanted to report."
Those private equity funds, named LJM1 and LJM2, earned Fastow millions of dollars in fees and profits as they bought assets from Enron, providing the company with money it reported as earnings.
Lay, Skilling and Enron's board of directors agreed to waive conflict of interest issues in letting Fastow operate the partnerships even while he was serving as one of the company's highest officers because it facilitated business deals the company needed.
But the company did not publicly disclose Fastow's role in the partnerships, referring only vaguely to them in a footnote in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
"We were using them to inflate our earnings and I don't think we wanted to show people what we were doing," he said.
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