Enron Broadband Jury Yet to Reach Verdict

Former Enron broadband unit in-house accountant Michael Krautz leaves the courthouse for lunch Tuesday, May 23, 2006 in Houston. Krautz and former broadband unit finance chief Kevin Howard are awaiting a jury's verdict on whether they conspired to break accounting rules so the energy giant could book bogus earnings. (AP Photo/Ric Feld) (Ric Feld - AP)

HOUSTON -- Jurors in the retrial of two former executives from Enron Corp.'s defunct broadband unit have yet to reach a verdict, the same as another federal panel deliberating the fates of their former bosses, company founder Kenneth Lay and one-time CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

The jury in the broadband case finished about 16.5 hours of talks over more than two days Wednesday, and was slated to continue deliberating Thursday. The case involves fraud and conspiracy charges against the unit's former finance chief Kevin Howard and in-house accountant Michael Krautz.

The Lay-Skilling jury finished a fifth day of deliberations Wednesday in the fraud and conspiracy case against the former corporate titans, and also is slated to return Thursday.

Howard and Krautz are the first two of five former Enron broadband executives to be retried after their first trial last year ended with a hung jury.

The government contends that Howard and Krautz conspired to manufacture earnings for the failing broadband unit in late 2000 by selling an interest in future revenue of a video-on-demand venture that flopped.

The defendants counter that the deal was legitimate.

The first broadband trial began in April 2005 and focused mostly on three other executives accused of overhyping capabilities of Enron's broadband network and operating software.

Howard and Krautz are charged with one count each of conspiracy and false books and records and three counts of wire fraud.

Of the other three defendants, two are slated to be retried in September and the second trial of the third is postponed indefinitely pending an appeal to drop the case.