Merrill Lynch Execs Can Be Retried

Unbelievable:
via AP:

A federal appeals court says the retrial of three former Merrill Lynch & Co. executives connected to an Enron Corp. deal would not violate their constitutional protections against double jeopardy.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Houston federal judge’s 2008 ruling that Daniel Bayly, James A. Brown and Robert S. Furst can be retried.

All three are accused of helping push through Enron’s sham sale of three power barges moored off the coast of Nigeria to the brokerage in 1999. The deal inflated earnings in Enron’s energy division.

They were convicted in 2004 of conspiracy and wire fraud. But the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, threw out their convictions in 2006 after finding fault with the government’s legal theory in the case.

I’ll update soon.

Today In Enron History

On June 23, 2004, a federal grand jury in Houston returned a superseding indictment against four former Merrill Lynch executives and two former Enron executives. The six defendants charged in the eight-count superseding indictment were: Dan Boyle, a former VP in the Global Finance Group, Daniel Bayly, the former head of the Global Investment Banking division at Merrill Lynch; James A. Brown, the former head of Merrill Lynch’s Strategic Asset Lease and Finance group; William R. Fuhs, a former vice president in Merrill Lynch’s Strategic Asset Lease and Finance group; Robert S. Furst, the former Enron relationship manager for Merrill Lynch in the investment banking division, and Sheila K. Kahanek, 38, a former senior director in Enron’s Asia/Pacific/Africa/China (“APACHI”) transaction support group.

The superseding indictment was related to the Nigerian Barge transaction, in which Enron was alleged to have fraudulently sold a Nigerian barge to Merrill Lynch. The central issue at hand was whether Enron gave Merrill a guarantee that it would buy back the barge. If so, it was not a true sale.

At trial, Sheila Kahanek was found Not Guilty.

James A Brown, Dan Boyle, and Daniel Bayley were found guilty. Dan Boyle was the only one who did not appeal his sentence.

James A. Brown and Daniel Bayly’s convictions were overturned.  The government could retry them.

James A. Brown, Daniel Bayley and Robert Furst have filed a motion asking US District Judge Ewing Werlein to order the government to give them the Fastow Notes notes cited in the appeal of Jeffrey K. Skilling.

William R. Fuhs’s conviction was thrown out on appeal for lack of evidence.