Today In Enron History

June 6, 2005, Lea Fastow, wife of CFO Andy Fastow, was released from prison at 4:00am. She had been detained in a federal prison in Houston for eleven months. When she was released, she was detained for an additional month in a halfway house.

Lea Fastow had pleaded pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax crime for signing her name to a tax return which did not report her husband’s ill gotten gains.

Today In Enron History

Today in 2003, Lea Fastow was originally indicted for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Defraud the United States, two counts of Money Laundering, two counts of Aiding and Abetting and one count of filing a false tax return.

Today In Enron History

Today in 2004, Lea Fastow, wife of Andy Fastow and former Enron assistant treasurer, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge in federal court in Houston. Her crime was not reporting the income from her husband’s fraudulent activities at Enron on their tax returns. U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced her to a year in prison and another year of supervised release.

It was the second time Mrs. Fastow appeared before Judge Hittner. The first plea deal fell apart on April 7 after Hittner refused to impose a five-month prison term prosecutors recommended, indicating he thought the proposed sentence was too lenient when probation officials had recommended 10 to 16 months. Judge Hittner had harsh words for the prosecution: “The Department of Justice’s behavior might be seen as a blatant manipulation of the federal justice system and is of great concern to this court,” the judge said.

How true those words.