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Former Enron Broadband CEO sentenced to 16 months for wire fraud

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former Enron Broadband Services (EBS) CEO Joe Hirko was sentenced Monday to 16 months in prison for misrepresenting to investors the capabilities of Enron's broadband service. Hirko pleaded guilty last October to one count of wire fraud for issuing a press release falsely claiming that EBS had integrated a new feature into its broadband service. As part of the plea agreement, the government recommended Hirko receive a prison sentence of between 12 and 16 months. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Vanessa Gilmore of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered Hirko to pay $8.7 million in restitution. It is not yet known when Hirko will begin serving his sentence. Hirko pleaded guilty weeks before he was scheduled to be tried for a second time near the end of last year. In May 2008, Gilmore ordered Hirko and two other EBS executives to be retried after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused to dismiss charges against the men. The executives were found not guilty of several charges in 2005, but the jury was deadlocked on some issues and the three were later re-indicted.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 29, 2009 (boomark / email).