Willful, Knowing, Intentional

Richard Causey, former chief accountant of Enron, and his lawyers had entered into a plea bargaining session on or about Christmas eve. Causey, along with Jeffery Skilling and former Chairman Ken Lay, were indicted on a rather large array of fraud charges in connection with the Enron accounting scandal.

I was rather amused, as I often am upon seeing the words of Enron executive's lawyers, to see that Ken Lay's lawyer declared Richard Causey to be a "guy with a pure heart." Why Lay's lawyer feels a need to say this is not made clear, though I suspect it had something to do with keeping Causey butter-side up because if he did turn, it would be a real mess for Skilling and Lay. And to be sure, praise also was coming from Skilling's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, who said that Causey was "one of three innocent men about to go to trial." You were probably unaware of the fact that the American judicial system is heavily biased against rich white guys and often wrongfully convicts such downtrodden wretches.

Well, I guess Causey didn't have much faith that the judicial system would recognise his innocence because he just copped a deal with federal prosecutors. Now, it is uncertain at this point as to which of the charges of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering he may have pleaded guilty to, but he must have realised that he got the raw end of a very bad deal and decided to "give a little back." If he's lucky, he'll be walking in a few, potentially miserable years, but he'll be out long before Lay and Skilling ever see the light of day outside a compound. And at the rate witnesses are turning on those two, that day may never, ever come to pass.