Executives

The trial of three former Dynegy Inc. executives involved in the financing scheme Project Alpha is expected to begin Aug. 4 and last at least eight weeks, attorneys said Tuesday. Jamie Olis, 37, Gene Shannon Foster, 44, and Helen Christine Sharkey, 31, pleaded innocent in separate appearances before a Houston judge.

A Houston judge has frozen the assets of former executives with Rocky Mountain Energy Corp. (RMEC) after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the company had illegally worked to manipulate its stock price. The SEC accused RMEC, its former CEO John Ehrman and former general counsel Roderick Johnson of an ongoing “pump and dump” scheme to raise the stock price, according to the complaint.

A Houston judge has frozen the assets of former executives with Rocky Mountain Energy Corp. (RMEC) after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the company had illegally worked to manipulate its stock price.

Two former executives of Dynegy Inc. are heading up a new limited partnership that will acquire and control power and natural gas assets in the U.S. StoneCap Management LLC on Wednesday announced the formation of the StoneCap Group L.P., whose principals include Hugh Tarpley and Milton Scott.

Arthur L. Smith, CEO of the venerable energy research firm John S. Herold Inc., offered a prayer for the new year to oil and gas executives meeting in Houston last week: “Lord,” he pleaded, “let 2003 be boring.”

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.

With embattled CFO Andrew Fastow and other corporate executives joining him, Chairman Kenneth Lay attempted to answer yet again the growing list of questions that are swirling around Enron Corp.’s third quarter announcement of equity reductions and related-party transactions. However, it seemed in the end that listeners were still hungry for more information on the Houston-based company’s balance sheet, as well as its plans to stop the slide in stock prices.

Merrill Lynch & Co. last week terminated two high-level executives, including the vice chairman, for allegedly refusing to testify to federal officials about financial services agreements the company completed with Enron Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal.

Merrill Lynch & Co. on Wednesday terminated two high-level executives, including the vice chairman, for allegedly refusing to testify to federal officials about financial services agreements the company completed with Enron Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal.