Another Former Enron Exec Heads to Prison – But Where Are the Bankers?

This shouldn’t go by unnoticed: The former head of Enron’s failed Internet division was just sentenced to 16 months in prison, The Washington Post reports. Joseph Hirko, the former broadband unit CEO also agreed to pay $8.7 million in restitution. Prosecutors contend Hirko falsely promoted Enron’s broadband division to analysts to help pump up the company’s stock price.

As Clusterstock noted, the fall of Enron occurred back in 2001 — but it’s still making news.

If Enron is any indication, we’ll be hearing about the collapsed businesses of the financial crisis for years to come.  The Enron bankruptcy seems like eons ago, but the fallout never ends.

Maybe. But where’s the legal fallout from the current financial crisis?

As we mentioned on Monday, save for Bernard Madoff, there haven’t been any high-profile prosecutions over the subprime mortgage market mess. Wouldn’t backdating financial reports to mask a bank’s failing situation, as apparently was the case with IndyMac, qualify as criminal? Enron failed after all the accounting tricks it used for years couldn’t hide its real situation anymore. Courts have found the actions of its top executives worthy of jail terms. When will we hear about bankers going to jail?

Enron’s bankruptcy should be small change, compared to a global financial crisis. Let’s see how far the fallout goes, this time around.