Enron Trial

If you are not following the trial of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, 1) you are missing out on some good stuff; and 2) this would be a good week to start. Five weeks into the case, the government has finally called former CFO Andrew Fastow to testify.

Fastow already has pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and soon will begin serving a 10-year prison term. As a going-away present to himself, and to fulfill the terms of his deal with prosecutors, Fastow will try to convince the jury that Lay and Skilling (especially Skilling) knew of, tolerated, at least tacitly encouraged, and certainly benefited from his crimes. Here's a running account of Fastow's first day, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle's trial blog. Note how little Lay was apparently mentioned, something that has occurred on many other days during the trial so far. It will be interesting to see whether and how that changes as the case moves along.

Oh, that sound you hear is Skilling attorney Daniel Petrocelli drooling at the thought of cross-examining Fastow. Stay tuned.