In another plea agreement reached by the Enron Task Force in Houston, four former El Paso Corp. natural gas energy traders were expected to plead guilty to criminal charges for reporting false trades to an industry publication and will cooperate with an ongoing federal probe, prosecutors said Wednesday in a Houston courtroom.

The government informed U.S. Magistrate Stephen Smith that the four, who were employees in El Paso’s merchant energy unit, had surrendered Wednesday morning. They are expected to enter guilty pleas on one criminal count each for false reporting, aiding and abetting, to industry publication Inside FERC.

Christopher Bakkenist, 41; Dallas Dean, 60; Donald Guilbault, 51; and William Ham, 45, each face up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine for the single count of false reporting.

According to the court papers, the four individuals charged Wednesday received letters in August from the office of U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby informing them that they were targets of the investigation into false reporting of natural gas trading data. Several other former El Paso traders apparently also received letters, but they were not charged on Wednesday, according to attorneys.

The government’s case is similar to one against Todd Geiger, a former El Paso trader, who also was accused of providing false information on gas trades. He pleaded guilty last December and is cooperating with authorities pending his sentencing (see Daily GPI, Dec. 12, 2003).

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