JURIST - Paper Chase: Former Enron executives scheduled for retrial

[JURIST] US District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore [official website] ordered retrials for three former Enron Broadband Services [JURIST news archive] executives Monday. Scheduled to begin in November, the new series of trials follows a refusal by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] to dismiss remaining charges against the three after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts in their 2005 fraud trial. Defense lawyers say they plan to appeal Gilmore's decision to the US Supreme Court. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.

Former VP Scott Yeager, former senior VP Rex Shelby, and former CEO Joseph Hirko [Houston Chronicle profiles] were initially indicted [PDF text] by federal prosecutors on 164 criminal counts for allegedly overstating the value of the broadband division's software and network to inflate the value of Enron's stock. They were acquitted [JURIST report] on various charges in 2005, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts, and prosecutors later re-indicted [JURIST report] the defendants. Defense lawyers argued [JURIST report] that there is no basis for the remaining charges or for a retrial, but the Fifth Circuit ruled that a jury could find the men guilty of other charges despite their acquittals.

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