http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1622166
----snip- Employing trading strategies bearing nicknames like "Fat Boy," "Ricochet" and "Get Shorty," Belden -- working with other, unnamed parties -- tried to manipulate energy markets in California between 1998 and 2001.
"The conspiracy ... allowed Enron to exploit and intensify the California electricity crisis and prey on energy consumers at their most vulnerable moment," Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said.
Belden, described by prosecutors as a Houston resident, has promised to cooperate with investigators in the probe.
One California lawmaker says Belden could help prosecutors bring charges not only against former higher-ups at Enron, but officials at other energy-trading firms as well.
"I think upper management needs to be concerned, if they aren't already," said California state Sen. Joseph Dunn, chairman of a special panel investigating the power crisis. "I will be surprised if Tim Belden does not point fingers up the corporate ladder."
California officials say Belden's decision to plead could prove as pivotal for the investigation into California's electricity crisis as former Enron executive Michael Kopper's guilty plea has been for the probe into the company's accounting practices.
Prosecutors have said information provided by Kopper helped them charge Enron's one-time Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow with wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
While at Enron, Belden headed the trading operation in Portland, Ore. He reported to then-Enron executives John Lavorato, Greg Whalley and Mark Frevert, who in turn answered to Enron's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling.
Lavorato and Whalley now work for UBS Warburg Energy, which acquired Enron's trading business. Through a UBS spokeswoman, the two declined comment Thursday.
An attorney for Skilling did not return a telephone call, while Frevert could not be reached for immediate comment.
_________________________________ Steven Hertzberg