Two former Enron Corp. executives whose testimony helped U.S. prosecutors get convictions against senior staff were handed reduced prison terms on Friday.
Michael Kopper, an aide to former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, was given three years and one month behind bars.
Kopper, 41, was eligible for a sentence of up to 15 years. He was the first executive at the company to plead guilty to charges in the wake of Enron's massive collapse.
Prosecutors had requested a reduced sentence for Kopper, who had co-operated with the U.S. government in its case against senior executives at the company.
As part of his guilty plea entered in August 2002, Kopper handed back about $12 million US in illegally obtained assets.
In his plea proceedings more than four years ago, Kopper said he worked under Fastow's direction and kicked back money to the former Enron CFO on at least two occasions. Kopper left Enron several months before the company collapsed in 2001.
The testimony of Kopper about Fastow helped U.S. prosecutors build their case against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling.
Lay and Skilling were convicted in May. Lay died in July, but Skilling was sentenced in October to more than 24 years in prison.
Mark Koenig, 51, Enron's former director of investor relations, was given an 18-month sentence. Koenig pleaded guilty in August 2004 to a charge of aiding and abetting securities fraud, which could have carried a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
During the trial of Skilling and Lay, Koenig said Enron altered its financial results with the knowledge of Skilling and Lay to meet or exceed Wall Street analysts' expectations.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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