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Former enron official changes plea to guilty Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2003-09-10-glisan-enron_x.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2003-09-10-glisan-enron_x.htm
Posted 9/10/2003 10:39 AM Updated 9/10/2003 3:28 PM
Former Enron treasurer changes plea to guilty
HOUSTON (AP) — Former Enron treasurer Ben Glisan pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal conspiracy charge and became the first executive sentenced to prison in the scandal that toppled the energy company.
Prosecutors say there was no deal with Glisan to implicate higher-ranking executives.
Glisan, who earlier pleaded innocent to multiple charges of money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy as part of an indictment against his one-time boss, former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow, changed his plea to guilty to a single charge of conspiracy in an appearance before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt.
Hoyt sentenced him to five years in prison, the maximum term. Once his sentence is complete, he'll be under supervised release for another three years.
"I think I would simply like to say I take full responsibility for my actions," Glisan told the judge.
Twenty-three other counts against Glisan were dismissed.
He also agreed to forfeit nearly $1 million in profits from a partnership investment related to Enron and agreed to not seek a refund of $412,000 in income taxes he paid on that profit.
About three hours after the hearing, Glisan, wearing chains around his ankles, his tie removed and his suit coat draped over his presumably handcuffed wrists, was led by marshals from the downtown Houston federal courthouse and into a four-door sedan that drove away with its police lights flashing.
He was the second top Enron executive to plead guilty. Michael Kopper, once one of Fastow's top lieutenants, pleaded guilty in August 2002 to money laundering and conspiracy. Kopper, who remains free, is cooperating with government investigators.
Unlike Kopper, federal prosecutors say Glisan is not assisting them in their probe of Enron.
"We never were banking on him cooperating with us," said Leslie Caldwell, head of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force.
But she said the imprisonment should be a sign for other Enron executives being targeted.
"He was viewed as one of the whiz kids at Enron," Caldwell said. "The fact that he now admitted he created a fraudulent way for Enron to hide things off its books I think will send a somewhat chilling message to other people."
At the hearing, Glisan admitted to conspiring to falsify Enron's financial results to show the company was more successful than it actually was.
The Justice Department, in a statement from Washington, called the scheme a "deliberate fraud designed to remove unfavorable information from its publicly reported financial results."
"Today's plea further demonstrates the increasingly elaborate — and fraudulent accounting games used by Enron to conceal what has now become apparent: Well before its ultimate collapse in 2001, Enron was a badly failing business," said Christopher Wray, acting assistant attorney general.
Glisan was fired in November 2001, less than a month before Enron filed for bankruptcy, when an internal probe revealed he gained $1 million from a $5,800 investment in one of several complex deals at the heart of the Justice Department's case against the Houston company.
Last year, Glisan, 37, and his legal team tried to strike a deal with the Justice Department and avoid prosecution by telling what he knew about the financial details.
Last week, Hoyt ruled that Fastow would be tried separately from his co-defendants, setting Fastow's trial for April 20, Glisan's for July 20 and former finance executive Dan Boyle's for Aug. 17.
Hoyt said the trials were split partly because of the discrepancy in the number of counts against Fastow in comparison to his co-defendants, "as well as the impact that such evidence may have on a jury."
Boyle has pleaded innocent to two counts of conspiracy.
Fastow has pleaded innocent to fraud, money laundering, insider trading and other charges for allegedly masterminding schemes and partnerships to enrich himself, his family and friends at the expense of Enron and its investors.
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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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