Enron broadband CFO gets year’s probation after pleading guilty to falsifying books

Enron exec gets home confinement after guilty plea

HOUSTON — Enron’s former broadband finance chief has received one year’s probation, including nine months’ home confinement, for falsifying company books.

Kevin Howard’s sentence Monday came under a deal with prosecutors for his June 1 guilty plea to one count of falsifying books and records. The Justice Department said Howard could have received up to 12 months’ home confinement under the plea deal.

Prosecutors had counseled leniency, stipulating that Howard didn’t benefit personally from any fraud committed at Houston-based Enron, which collapsed in December 2001 under the weight of faked accounting.

Howard had been tried twice, first in 2005 in a proceeding that ended in a hung jury, then in a 2006 trial that ended in a conviction that was later tossed out.