JURIST - Paper Chase: Former Merrill Lynch exec gets 30 months jail for role in Enron barge scam

[JURIST] Former Merrill Lynch [corporate website] executive Daniel Bayly has been sentenced to 30 months by in prison US District Judge Ewing Werlein for his role in an Enron Nigerian barge scam. Bayly will also face six months of supervision after prison and must pay $840,000 in fees and fines. Judge Werlein found the losses caused by Bayly's crimes to be $1.4 million. In sentencing Bayly, Werline said he considered sentences given to other Enron defendants. While awaiting the sentencing, Bayly has been under house arrest in Connecticut for refusing to relinquish control over an $80 million account. The judge is scheduled to sentence Bayly's codefendant James A. Brown, former head of the bank's asset lease and finance group this afternoon. Brown faces upwards of 30 years in prison over conspiracy, fraud, perjury, and obstruction charges. Their three remaining codefendants, bankers Robert Furst and William Fuhs and Enron's Dan Boyle, will be sentenced in May. Bayly and his codefendants have argued that their conspiracy and fraud should be thrown out because they led to no victims, no losses and that the deal was good for Enron [corporate website; JURIST Hot Topic news archive] shareholders. Read the indictment [PDF] against the five involved in the barge deal. The Houston Chronicle has more and continuing coverage of the Enron barge trial.

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