HOUSTON – Jurors on Wednesday convicted one of the former executives from Enron Corp.'s defunct broadband unit to be retried after his original case ended in a hung jury last year.
Former broadband unit finance chief Kevin Howard was convicted while former in-house accountant Michael Krautz was acquitted of five counts of fraud, conspiracy and falsifying records after a monthlong trial that took place next door to the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling.
The government's partial victory came six days after another jury convicted Lay and Skilling of fraud, conspiracy and other charges. Jurors in the original broadband trial were hung nearly a year ago on all criminal counts facing the two men.
Jurors, through their verdict, sided with the government's contention that Howard conspired to manufacture earnings for the failing broadband unit in late 2000 by selling an interest in future revenue of a video-on-demand venture that disintegrated a few months later.
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