Five convicted in first Enron trial

The Times
From Abigail Rayner in New York



FOUR Merrill Lynch bankers and a mid-level Enron executive were last night found guilty of conspiracy and fraud in the first criminal trial since the collapse of the energy trading giant three years ago.

A jury in Houston convicted William Fuhs, James Brown, Daniel Bayly and Robert Furst, all of Merrill Lynch, as well as Dan Boyle, former Enron finance executive and vice-president. Sheila Kahanek, a former in-house accountant for Enron, was cleared of all charges.

The trial centred on the 1999 sale of two Nigerian electricity barges by Enron to Merrill for $7 million. Key to the prosecution’s case was a December 1999 conference call during which Andrew Fastow, then Enron’s chief financial officer, is alleged to have promised Merrill Lynch bankers, including Mr Bayly, that the bank would be returned its investment by June the following year.

Prosecutors claimed that the deal was a sham used to inflate artificially Enron’s profits and meet investors’ expectations by maintaining a healthy share price.

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