Accuse

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) has strongly refuted claims in a lawsuit filed by two Colorado cities which accuse the company of overcharging customers located in high elevations by failing to adjust bills to reflect the effect of the higher altitude on the gas stream.

Andrew S. Fastow, the 40-year-old former CFO of Enron, is scheduled to be arraigned in Houston on Wednesday (Nov. 7) on 78 counts that accuse him of leading the effort to conceal the company’s losses and debts, as well as inflate the former energy merchant’s trading profits. The indictment lists six different crimes, with the following charges: 36 wire fraud; 36 money laundering; 2 conspiracy to commit wire fraud; 2 conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud; 1 money laundering conspiracy; and 1 obstruction of justice.

Andrew S. Fastow, the 40-year-old former CFO of Enron, was indicted Thursday on 78 counts that accuse him of leading the effort to conceal the company’s losses and debts, as well as inflate the former energy merchant’s trading profits. The indictment accuses Fastow of securities fraud and other criminal charges. Federal prosecutors previously had filed a criminal complaint, charging him with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

Despite findings by the Enron board of directors’ special investigative committee that top company officials used the controversial off-the-book partnerships for self-enrichment gains, the director who headed up the three-month investigation of the collapsed energy trader refused to say Tuesday that the activities of Enron executives rose to the level of criminal securities fraud.

The investigation that led the Natural Gas Supply Association(NGSA), to accuse its president of misappropriating funds wassparked by a bill from the Internal Revenue Service, requiring aconsultant to pay taxes on income he never received for services henever provided to NGSA.