Enron Accountant cops plea in grand-daddy of all Frauds: ury selection starts Jan. 17- stay tuned
Ex-Enron Accountant Strikes Plea Deal - Los Angeles Times: "Less than three weeks before he was to face a jury alongside Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on charges including conspiracy and fraud, the company's former top accountant, Richard Causey, is switching sides.

Causey was set this afternoon to plead guilty to one or more crimes stemming from the scandal-ridden company's crash more than four years ago and help the government pursue convictions against his former bosses, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the discussions."
Causey faces more than 30 counts of conspiracy, fraud, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering. Many of those overlap with the 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, lying to auditors and insider trading pending against Skilling. The pair are accused of conspiring with others to fool investors into believing a wobbly Enron was healthy in the years leading to its December 2001 crash.

Some of Causey's charges also overlap with the seven fraud and conspiracy counts pending against Lay, in which the former chairman is accused of perpetuating the ruse after Skilling's abrupt resignation in August 2001.

Skilling and Lay maintain that they neither committed nor knew of any crimes at Enron, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Causey, 45, could be more damaging to Lay and Skilling than former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in January 2004. Unlike his former peer, Causey didn't skim millions of dollars for himself from shady deals.

Also, Lay has repeatedly pointed to Fastow as the crook who abused his trust, highlighting the former finance chief's admitted skullduggery.

"There is some safety in numbers from the government's perspective. It's not just Andy Fastow now, it's another senior official. That takes some of the pressure and burden off of Fastow," said Kirby Behre, a former federal prosecutor. "They might make an effective one-two punch in terms of government witnesses."