Merrill exec stays free on Enron rap

A judge rejected a push to throw a former Merrill executive back in jail for crimes related to the collapse of Enron.

A judge in Houston rejected a prosecutor’s push to throw a former Merrill Lynch & Co. executive back in jail for the entire term imposed for crimes related to the collapse of Enron Corp.
U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein denied a request from prosecutor Arnold Spencer to revoke James Brown’s bond and order him imprisoned for his original 46 month term, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
Judge Werlein imposed that punishment nearly two years ago after a jury convicted Mr. Brown of five crimes at the conclusion of a 2004 trial.
Mr. Brown served a year of that term, but was released from jail in August 2006, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned three convictions of conspiracy and fraud against him and other former Merrill executives.
Jurors convicted the defendants for their roles in helping push through a year-end sale of Enron assets to Merrill that prosecutors said was really a disguised loan.
The court upheld Mr. Brown’s convictions of perjury and obstruction of justice, but threw out the fraud and conspiracy convictions against him and his Merrill codefendants because prosecutors used a flawed theory to prove their guilt.
Mr. Brown’s codefendants, Daniel Bayly and Robert Furst, are to be retried later this month.