Ex-Enron accountant says he cooked books

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Sixteen ex-Enron executives have pleaded guilty to crimes ranging from conspiracy to insider trading, and are cooperating with prosecutors.

In addition to the $500,000 SEC fine, Colwell lost his CPA license and is barred from being an officer in a publicly traded company. He is not a felon.

Only one other such deal emerged from simultaneous investigations by the Justice Department and the SEC.

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In February 2005, Raymond Bowen Jr., who became Enron’s chief financial officer after the company flamed out and remained in that role until October 2004, also paid $500,000 to settle SEC allegations that he knew or should have known some assets were grossly overvalued to pump up profits. Bowen also has not been charged with a crime.

Bowen, 46, is not on the government’s witness list, but he is on the defense teams’ combined witness list, which means lawyers for Lay or Skilling may call him to testify.

From September 1999 through February 2002, Colwell was chief accounting officer of Enron Wholesale Services. That division encompassed Enron North America, the company’s trading unit that Skilling nurtured as part of the company’s transformation from a staid pipeline company to a powerhouse trader that spawned copycats among competitors in the energy sector.

Colwell worked for the previous 17 years at Arthur Andersen LLP, the withered accounting firm whose 2002 conviction on a charge of trying to thwart an SEC investigation by destroying Enron-related documents was overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Skilling faces 31 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors, while Lay faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. If convicted, both face decades in prison. Only Skilling faces allegations of improper stock sales.

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