HOUSTON (AP):
JURORS YESTERDAY convicted one of the former executives from Enron Corp.'s defunct broadband unit to be retried after his original case ended in a hung jury last year.
Former broadband unit finance chief Kevin Howard was convicted of five counts of fraud, conspiracy and falsifying records while former in-house accountant Michael Krautz was acquitted of the same charges after a month-long trial.
The verdict came six days after another jury convicted Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling of fraud, conspiracy and other charges in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.
Lay and Skilling were convicted of conspiring to run a massive fraud through repeated lies to investors and employees about Enron's financial strength. The company careened into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001.
Howard and Krautz were the first of five broadband executives to be retried in separate cases after the original trial of the entire group ended in a hung jury last year.
