Ex-Enron executive free of charges after ruling

A former Enron Corp. executive is free of criminal charges related to financial fraud at the one-time energy giant after an appeals court ruled he should be acquitted of all counts he faced.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said it would not revisit the case of F. Scott Yeager, a former executive at Enron's failed broadband venture.

The appeals court, in a ruling released late Monday, sent the case back to a federal court in Houston and ordered it to enter acquittals on all counts Yeager faced.

The ruling comes after the Supreme Court in June threw out a previous ruling by the 5th Circuit that would have allowed a retrial on charges for which a jury could not reach a verdict at Yeager's 2005 trial. The Supreme Court had said the appeals court, if it wanted, could take another look at the case, leaving the door open for a possible retrial.

In its Monday ruling, the 5th Circuit turned down a request by prosecutors that it review the case after the Supreme Court's decision.

"Today, ... it is clear under our initial ... analysis the jury made a finding in acquitting Yeager that precludes prosecution on insider trading and money laundering," the appeals court said in its ruling.

Samuel Buffone, one of Yeager's attorneys, said his client did nothing wrong and should never have been indicted.

"He had this hanging over his head despite repeated (legal) victories. Now to have it come to an end is fitting and certainly removes him from the incredible cloud that had been hanging over his life and his reputation for the last seven years," Buffone said.

The Justice Department declined to comment, said spokeswoman Laura Sweeney.

Yeager was one of five former executives from Enron's failed broadband venture tried in 2005. They were accused of lying to shareholders and the market about the broadband division's value and hoping to get rich by selling the inflated shares.

Yeager sold Enron stock for more than $54 million before the company began a downward spiral that ended in bankruptcy in 2001.

Prosecutors said the executives' actions contributed to the fraud that eventually led to the company's downfall.

Yeager faced 125 counts and was acquitted of five, including four counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud. The jury couldn't reach a verdict on the remaining counts, which alleged insider trading and money laundering.

Yeager was later reindicted on 13 counts of insider trading and money laundering.

His attorneys argued that collateral estoppel, a little known component of the Fifth Amendment's double jeopardy clause, prevented prosecutors from retrying individuals after a jury votes not guilty on some charges, but fails to reach a verdict on others that share an element with the acquitted charges.

Prosecutors had argued retrying Yeager on the counts the jury couldn't decide didn't raise double jeopardy issues.

Of the other Enron executives indicted in the broadband case, four pleaded guilty, one was acquitted in a retrial and another is still waiting to see if he will be retried.

Various Enron related convictions have been thrown out on appeal and the Supreme Court last week agreed to hear the appeal of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling.

Buffone said the lesson to be learned from Yeager's situation is when dealing with a case like Enron, zealous prosecutors can quickly enter charges that years later are determined to be unfounded.

"He was prosecuted in almost 200 counts. You have to wonder about how that judgment was made and what it was based on," Buffone said.