Former Enron executive Michael Kopper is expected to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy charges Wednesday for his role in the Enron scandal and return an estimated $12 million that he pocketed from illegal partnership deals, according to published sources.

As part of a deal with the Department of Justice, he allegedly will plead guilty in Houston to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering and return the money, making Kopper the first Enron official to be charged in the federal government’s sweeping investigation of the former energy giant, the Wall Street Journal and other sources reported.

“We can’t comment on the report,” an SEC spokesman told NGI Tuesday. Some believe Kopper’s guilty plea may mean that charges against other former Enron executives, such as ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow, may not be too far behind. Fastow walked away with about $30 million when the company collapsed last fall.

Federal prosecutors have successfully prosecuted non-Enron players in the scandal. Arthur Anderson, Enron’s former auditor, was tried for obstruction of justice, and David Duncan, an Arthur Andersen executive who oversaw the Enron account in Houston, pleaded guilty to obstruction charges earlier this summer related to the destruction of documents sought in the government’s probe of Enron.

Also, the federal government brought indictments in late June against three former British bankers for fraudulently making off with more than $7 million in profits through an Enron third-party entity (See Daily GPI, July 1). The bankers allegedly were part of an elaborate hedging scheme set up by Fastow and his aide, Kopper.

Kopper, Enron’s managing director of Global Finance, allegedly pocketed the millions as a result of his direct investment in the questionable Chewco partnership, which along with the Enron’s other partnerships were designed to boost profits and hide debt. Kopper did not get the Enron board’s approval for his investment in the Chewco partnership, but rather did that “surreptitiously,” according to the famous Powers report, which spelled out the questionable activities of Enron executives.

Kopper took the Fifth Amendment when he appeared before Congress earlier this year, and has stayed out of the public spotlight since the scandal surrounding Enron unfolded.

A guilty plea by Kopper is likely to relieve some of the pressure that Congress has put on the Justice Department to bring indictments in the Enron accounting scandal. Just last week, Sen Byron L. Dorgan, who chaired the Commerce Committee hearings into Enron accounting irregularities, demanded to know why it was taking so long to bring charges against former Enron executives.

The public has seen other corporate executives “taken away in handcuffs” in recent months, he said in his letter Friday to Attorney General John Ashcroft. “I am writing to ask why no action has been taken against those who were responsible for illegal activities at the Enron Corp.”

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