End of Enron's Saga Brings Era to a Close

"The task force will likely be remembered only for its success in obtaining convictions of Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling, but its overall record in other cases of not-guilty verdicts and reversals by appeals courts is equally part of its legacy," Pollack said.

Task-force leaders also declined to retry defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP in its obstruction-of-justice case after the Supreme Court, in a serious setback, unanimously tossed its conviction in 2005. The firm's conviction four years ago nonetheless sounded alarms across the corporate landscape and spurred accountants to become more skeptical of their clients, leading to more rigorous audits and a greater number of restated financial results.

Enron became "the leading symbol of corporate scandal," in the words of U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, but the shuttering of the task force will by no means mark the end of regulators' pursuit of business crime, government officials said.

The FBI's Burrus added that while Enron amounted to "an amazing criminal phenomenon," the bureau still has more than 400 open investigations in such areas as stock options backdating, political corruption and related offenses.

Already, federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against former executives at Comverse and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. for allegedly failing to disclose schemes that triggered bigger payouts for certain employees awarded stock options, which allow workers to buy stock at a set price and a specific time.

At least 30 executives this year have lost their jobs over options scandals, as board members now appear far more willing to fire top executives for questions about the propriety of their behavior, in part because corporate accountability legislation passed after the big-name frauds clarified directors' responsibility to investors.

But some legacies of the recent scandals may be more short-lived. In early 2002, President Bush created a government-wide panel to combat business fraud, a move that spurred federal prosecutors across the country to pour resources into such investigations. But after Richard M. Scrushy, the founder of HealthSouth Corp., was acquitted by an Alabama jury in 2004 and a criminal case against former Kmart Corp. executives in Michigan was dismissed, the difficulties of bringing and winning such cases became more clear.

As a result, there may be a natural devolution as complex fraud cases congregate once again in such hot spots as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, said Leslie R. Caldwell, a former federal prosecutor and the first leader of the Enron Task Force.

Moreover, business groups already are pushing back on the regulatory crackdown, attacking accounting strictures in the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley federal law as too expensive and pushing lawmakers and securities regulators to weaken the rules. Two independent committees, including one led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are studying ways to change the law. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has made statements criticizing the rules, as well.

Timothy J. Coleman, a former prosecutor and Justice Department official, predicted that the legions of investigators hired by securities regulators, federal prosecutors and the FBI will pay lasting dividends because they will become a "standing army" ready to target business wrongdoing.

"Whether it's stock options, mutual funds or something else, corporate America should expect a continuing series of major, nationwide investigations for the foreseeable future," said Coleman, now a defense lawyer in Washington.