While perusing the excellent Houston’s Clear Thinkers blog, I came across this post which asks the provocative question: did Andy Fastow forge Rick Causey’s initials on the Global Galactic agreement?
Using the testimony of an Arthur Andersen accountant, Skilling’s attorneys got the former partner to admit that the so-called Causey initials did not appear to be like other known Causey initials. The [Skilling] defense did not have a handwriting expert review the samples, but I found the testimony of the AA accountant compelling nonetheless.
But the relevance of this is pivotal to the question that led me to Kirkendall’s blog in the first place: why didn’t the prosecution put Causey on the stand? Had Causey testified it seems like he’d have been in a strong position to refute or confirm the controversial Global Galactic agreement.
The Task Force originally said that the Global Galactic agreement did not “relate to Skilling but implicated Causey and Fastow.” However, when on the eve of trial, Causey pleaded guilty to a single count unrelated to Global Galactic the Task Force shifted its allegation of Global Galactic conspiracy from Causey to Skilling.
I can not pretend to know the timeline or the inside story of Andy Fastow’s interrogation by the FBI – the interrogations that produced the Fastow Notes. However, I would not be at all surprised to see that Fastow did not recall meeting with Skilling about the Global Galactic agreement until Causey pleaded guilty; this sort of detail is exactly why it’s critical that the Fastow Notes are released to Skilling’s defense.
During the trial, the Task Force introduced a document that was supposedly written by Fastow in the Spring of 2001 which were talking points to discuss with Skilling. In the document it spells out, “Global Galactic.” Under oath, Fastow admitted he never gave or showed the document to Skilling.
This isn’t the only wonky document. During trial, the government introduced this masterpiece, “Additional Agreements Between Enron and LJM/AF”. It is dated “September 2000”. It’s best not to be too specific about these things after all, so just the month and date work beautifully for this purpose. This document has a very glamorous past. Fastow claimed he destroyed the original in the summer of 2001. What was happening in the summer of 2001? Not much. Skilling left the company that August but otherwise, money was being made, all was well; it seems a strange time to destroy the document.
Anyway, apparently a second copy (Rick Causey’s copy?) ended up in an envelope in a safe-deposit box that Fastow and his wife kept at a bank. Fastow said he had no idea how it ended up in a folder holding his Enron employment agreement.
Lea Fastow claimed to find the envelop in April 2004 when she checked the safe deposit box. That was the same month she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax crime, ostensibly for helping launder the dirty Enron money, for which she would serve a year in the federal detention center in Houston, Texas. For her plea, the government dropped six felony counts pending against her.
Fastow said his wife put the envelope on his desk, but he didn’t look inside the folder until about a month later. He immediately gave it to his attorney, who gave it to the government. And then it ended up in court, sparkly clean and dazzling.
To me, it just seems a bit too convenient. My personal opinion is that he created the document when he needed something to show the feds in order to plea out.
Who knows. The whole Global Galactic story is just too ridiculous for words. The CFO is conspiring with the CEO, the CFO makes notes – two copies! – doesn’t actually show the notes to anyone, loses one copy, doesn’t know how the other ended up in a safe deposit box and it miraculously fingers the bad guy, while also saying – BEFORE THIS DOCUMENT SHOWED UP – that he had never talked to Jeff Skilling about the Global Galactic document.
Oh, and he’s committing several major felonies and writes it all down. And saves the paperwork. And initials it. And gets the Chief Accounting Officer to initial it too.
Honestly. If Andy Fastow were ten years old, telling you this story, you’d send him into time out and take away his television privileges for making up such a stupid, poorly-constructed lie.
In my opinion, the Global Galactic agreement never existed. It was just one more of Andy Fastow’s phony shell games.
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