HOUSTON, Sept 26: Andrew Fastow, who helped engineer the financial trickery that sank Enron Corp. and then helped prosecutors convict others involved in the scandal, received a six-year sentence on Tuesday, four years less than the deal he had made.
U.S. District Judge Ken Hoyt said the 44-year-old former Enron chief financial officer had given “exceptional” assistance to prosecutors, had pledged to help victims and had remorse, and his wife, Lea, had gone to prison for a year.
The judge imposed no fine and recommended a minimum security prison for Fastow. He rejected a request from lawyers for victims who are suing to recover losses that Fastow be allowed to surrender Oct. 23 after giving a deposition.
Fastow had agreed to a sentence of 10 years.
“What moves the arm of justice is mercy,” Hoyt told Fastow. “You were drunk on the wine of greed ... (but) you had a double portion, in that your wife shared in that (punishment).”
Fastow, who oversaw Enron’s finances during the giant energy trader’s spectacular rise and fall, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy in 2004 and agreed to assist prosecutors. His testimony helped convict former Chairman Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.—Reuters
