Former Enron Broadband CFO pleads guilty to charges of falsifying records

Kevin Howard, former chief financial officer of Enron Broadband Services, pleaded guilty on June 1 to a federal charge of falsifying books and records, the US Department of Justice said.

It said that Howard, who also was vice president of finance for Enron Corp.'s failed telecommunications business, entered a guilty plea to a single count before Judge Vanessa Gilmore in US District Court in Houston. He faces a sentence of up to 12 months of home confinement as part of his plea agreement.

Howard knowingly and willfully, directly or indirectly caused the parent company's 2000 Form 10-K to inaccurately and unfairly reflect transactions and dispositions of Enron's assets, according to the plea agreement and superseding indictment.

DOJ said that charges against Howard and other Enron Broadband employees were initially brought in March 2003 by the Enron Task Force, a team of federal prosecutors and agents formed to investigate matters related to Enron Corp.'s collapse.

The task force's remaining cases now are being handled by the fraud section of DOJ's Criminal Division, with investigatory assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DOJ said.

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