Judge shows shamed Enron chief mercy and jails him for six years

Published on Wednesday 27 September 2006 00:59

ANDREW Fastow, the former chief financial officer of Enron, whose apparent business wizardry was exposed as fraud and theft in the company's 2001 collapse, was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday.

The collapse of Enron, one of the biggest in US corporate history, wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value and more than $2 billion in pension plans.

US District Judge Ken Hoyt cited Fastow's help in the federal government's successful prosecution of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and the former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, his desire to help victims suing to recover their losses and his visible remorse, in imposing less than the ten years to which Fastow had agreed in pleading guilty in 2004.

Noting that Fastow has forfeited more than $24 million and friends and family have turned over more than $5 million, the judge imposed no fine. But he ordered two years of supervised release after the sentence.

Fastow hugged his wife and surrendered himself immediately after the hearing.