HOUSTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Enron's former chief accounting officer pleaded innocent Thursday in to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy in federal court in Houston.
Rick Causey, 43, surrendered to the FBI earlier in the day and was escorted in handcuffs to the federal courthouse. He was arraigned on five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
Causey allegedly engaged in a scheme to fraudulently manipulate Enron's publicly reported financial results and artificially inflate its stock price. If convicted, he faces up to 55 years in prison and a $5,250,000 fine on the six charges.
"Richard Causey and the other corrupt executives that ran Enron into the ground used some of the most sophisticated tricks in the corporate fraud playbook to con the public into believing that Enron was a success," said Deputy Attorney General James Comey.
Causey was Enron's top accounting executive from 1998 until 2002 when he was fired by the board a week after refusing to testify before a congressional investigating committee. He reported to former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow.
Fastow pleaded guilty last week to two conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with the government in their investigation of the Enron collapse. Legal observers believe Fastow's testimony could lead to charges against higher level ex-Enron officials.
Causey's bond was set at $1 million and a brother-in-law secured the bond with $500,000 in cash, according to the Houston Chronicle.
