An assistant U.S. attorney who helped win fraud convictions against former Enron executives was appointed Wednesday to lead the government’s criminal insider-trading case against former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio.
Cliff Stricklin, 42, was named first assistant U.S. attorney for Colorado. He will replace Bill Leone as the lead prosecutor on the Nacchio case.
Stricklin was one of four lead attorneys on the team that landed convictions on fraud, conspiracy and other charges against Enron founder Ken Lay and former chief executive Jeff Skilling.
A former state judge, Stricklin was picked to replace Leone after a seven-week nationwide search, said Troy Eid, U.S. attorney for Colorado.
“Cliff’s extraordinary background, including his work on the Enron Task Force, makes him the ideal leader to handle the Joseph Nacchio case while serving Colorado as first assistant U.S. attorney,” said Eid, who replaced Leone as U.S. attorney last week.
Leone had served as U.S. attorney since December 2004. Leone said this month he is returning to private practice.
Nacchio faces 42 counts of illegal insider trading connected to his sale of $100.8 million in Qwest stock in early 2001. Prosecutors allege he knew that the company’s finances were faltering. Nacchio has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has not been set.
“This is an important case,” Stricklin said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s an important reason to be here.”
The key to winning a complex white-collar crime case is to ensure that jurors understand the charges, a lesson that Stricklin said he learned from spending 18 months on the Enron Task Force.
Before joining that team, Stricklin was a state district judge in Dallas. Before that, he spent eight years as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Eastern District of Texas.
He is moving with his wife and two children from Dallas to Denver.
Stricklin said the Nacchio case is in good shape but that “there’s a lot of work to do.”
He only recently began following the case.
“I’ve had my hands full in Houston,” he said.
Stricklin’s team for the Nacchio case will include corporate- fraud trial attorneys Colleen Conry and Leo Wise from the Department of Justice in Washington and assistant U.S. attorney James Hearty in Colorado.
“With their combined background and experience, I am confident that they are up to the task,” Leone said in a statement.
Also Wednesday, The Denver Post filed a motion objecting to the government’s effort to close portions of a hearing scheduled for Friday.
The government had asked that the court close the hearing so the parties could discuss how to handle information that relates to national security.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
