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The NatWest Three are finally going home
The NatWest Three -- the three U.K. bankers who were dragged through the Enron mud for the past five years -- are finally going home after serving about six months of their sentences in U.S. prisons. After a hearing in...
Thoughts for a Sunday
The NY Times' Adam Liptak has penned a couple of interesting articles recently (here and here) on a frequent topic of this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) -- the troubling incarceration rate...
Maintaining Enron myths
Ever wonder how the mainstream media maintains Enron-related myths? In reporting on the sentencing hearing later this week in the Enron-related case of the three former UK bankers dubbed "the NatWest Three" (prior posts here), the Chronicle's Kristen Hays observes...
The human cost of questionable prosecutions
One of the more discouraging aspects of the societal tide of resentment and scapegoating that has permeated the Enron related criminal prosecutions has been the utter lack of perspective or compassion regarding the horrendous human cost of those prosecutions. We...
The real NatWest Three deal
I gave up hope long ago that the mainstream media would ever provide particularly accurate reports regarding the Enron-related criminal prosecutions. However, the mainstream media news reports on the plea bargain hearing earlier this week in the Enron-related NatWest Three...
Hedging the trial penalty
Although some have questioned his business ethics, no one has ever questioned that legendary Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt is good at hedging risk. After Wyatt was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison as a result of his plea deal...
Talk about a misleading P.R. campaign
Get a load of this press release (hat tip Ellen Podgor) from the Department of Justice heralding the five year anniversary of the DOJ's Corporate Fraud Task Force. Here is the press release's description of the Task Force's accomplishments in...
The embarrassment that is the Enron Task Force
Remember when the Wall Street Journal characterized the Enron Task Force as having "a good record overall?" Well, the latest development in that "good record" is that the Department of Justice Criminal Division -- the successor to the disassembled Task...
DOJ throws in the towel on appealing the Fifth Circuit's Nigerian Barge decision
The Chronicle's Kristen Hays reports on the news that was bubbling through the Houston legal community on Thursday afternoon -- the Department of Justice has decided not to mount an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the Fifth Circuit...
The Skilling sentencing hearing
Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's sentencing hearing is Monday afternoon, so it's a good time to provide some links that will provide a basis for an objective evaluation of Skilling's case as a counterbalance to what the mainstream media typically...
The surprising Fastow sentence
This Kristin Hays-Tom Fowler/Chronicle article picks up on an aspect of the six-year sentence assessed to former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow earlier this week that has largely been ignored in the media but noted earlier here -- the Enron Task...
Try to make sense of this
Let's see if I get this straight. On one hand, Andrew Fastow -- who served up his wife as a sacrifical lamb for his embezzlement of millions from Enron that triggered one of the largest bankruptcy cases in U.S. history,...
The Fastow sentencing memorandum
As Jamie Olis awaits his resentencing for working on a transaction for which he did not profit, Andrew Fastow's lawyers (one of whom is Olis' attorney -- small world, isn't it?) filed a sentencing memorandum earlier this week that claims...
The political implications of the NatWest Three case
This earlier post focused on the political controversy that arose in the UK over the case of the NatWest Three, the three former London-based National Westminster Bank PLC bankers who are charged in Houston with bilking their former employer of...
The spokesman for the NatWest Three
What do you do when you can't hang out and chat with your blokes? Well, in the case of David Bermingham -- one of the three former London-based National Westminster Bank PLC bankers dubbed the "NatWest Three" in the lexicon...
Sending bad messages
It's hard to imagine that the federal government could have sent worse signals to foreign investors in US markets and businesses than the ones that it sent over the past week. First, there was the latest news about the NatWest...
How not to treat friends
First, federal prosecutors heavy-handed tactics generated a political firestorm with one of America's closest allies over the NatWest Three case. Now this: In a sharp escalation of their crackdown on Internet gambling, United States prosecutors said yesterday that they were...
Can the NatWest Three receive a fair trial in Houston?
Barry Turner, lecturer in criminal law and criminal evidence at Leeds Law School, makes the following declaration in this Times Online blog post regarding the NatWest Three, who are presently awaiting a bond hearing in Houston in regard to the...
Another strange turn in the NatWest Three case
Neil Coulbeck, former chief of North American financial markets for NatWest’s corporate bank who provided evidence to the F.B.I. and the Justice Department about Enron-related transactions involving three former NatWest Bank colleagues, was found dead in an East London park...
Disparate results from overreaching prosecutions
Amidst a busy summer day, I pass along a rare and quick afternoon post on disparate results emanating earlier today from a couple of cases involving overreaching prosecutions of businesspeople. First, Peter Lattman (here and here), Dave Hoffman and Ellen...
The clock is ticking on the NatWest Three
As noted in these earlier posts, the Enron Task Force's prosecution of three former National Westminster Bank PLC bankers has raised a political firestorm in the United Kingdom, where the Task Force is attempting to use the 2003 Extradition Treaty...
The brewing political storm involving the NatWest Three
As the testimony of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling concludes today in a Houston courtroom, a political firestorm is brewing in the United Kingdom over the Enron-related case of the NatWest Three (previous posts here) -- the three former London-based...
Is the worm turning in favor of the NatWest Three?
This London Daily Telegraph article reports that the Enron-related case of the NatWest Three (previous posts here) -- the three former London-based National Westminster Bank PLC bankers who are charged in Houston with bilking their former employer of $7.3 million...
NatWest Three prepare for a long trip to Houston
The downtown Federal Detention Facility is not normally the destination of choice for U.K. bankers traveling to Houston, but it is looking increasingly as if that's where three former U.K. bankers embroiled in a transaction devised by former Enron CFO...
The troubling case of the NatWest Three
The NatWest Three are the three former National Westminster Bank PLC bankers based in London -- David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew -- who are charged in Houston with bilking their former employer of $7.3 million in one of...
Checking in on the NatWest Three
This Telegraph.com article updates the Enron-related case of the "NatWest Three," the three former National Westminster Bank PLC bankers based in London who are charged in Houston with bilking their former employer of $7.3 million in a scheme allegedly engineered...
The BBC on the NatWest Three
In its inimitable style, the B.B.C. has produced a news video segment on the three U.K. bankers who have been dubbed the "NatWest Three" (earlier posts here) in the Enron case. To view the video: Go to this site. Hit...
Update on Enron's "NatWest Three"
One of the more interesting sidelights to the criminal investigations into Enron Corp. has been the saga of the "NatWest Three" -- David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby, the three former National Westminster Bank PLC bankers based in London...
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