Houston – The architect of financial schemes that helped fuel the collapse of Enron Corp. told a jury Tuesday he had the blessing of his boss, then-chief executive Jeff Skilling, for moves that helped the energy-trading company hide losses and inflate profits.
In some of the most dramatic testimony in the sixth week of the trial, former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow said Skilling told him, “Get me as much of that juice as you can,” regarding the personally lucrative partnerships Fastow used to manipulate Enron’s finances.
Fastow appeared contrite in his much-anticipated confrontation in a federal courtroom with Skilling and Enron founder Ken Lay, who are on trial for alleged fraud and conspiracy stemming from Enron’s spectacular 2001 collapse.
He fought back tears as he told jurors that his wife, Lea, pleaded guilty to a tax crime and finished a year-long prison term last July for signing a tax return that didn’t include illegal income from business deals unrelated to the partnerships.
Fastow pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in January 2004 at his wife’s urging, more than a year after he was originally indicted on 98 charges. His plea was contingent on the government’s striking a deal for his wife.
Fastow, who agreed as part of his plea deal to serve 10 years in prison, is a key pillar of the government’s quest to prove Lay and Skilling lied to Wall Street and to their employees to conceal the crumbling finances that drove the company to seek bankruptcy protection in 2001.
The ex-CFO is central to the defense as well: Lawyers for Lay and Skilling say there was no overarching fraud at Enron and that the only crimes involved Fastow and two of his lieutenants stealing money via his schemes.
