Fridae

Michael J. Kopper, an openly gay former mid-level executive who played a critical role in a group of entities Enron created to hide $700 million and mask its weakening financial condition has entered guilty pleas to money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a US District Court in Houston today, according to media reports.

The 37-year-old who from prosecutors, confessed that he ran or helped create several partnerships that earned him and others millions of dollars while hiding debt and inflating profits at Enron.

He was also the right-hand man to former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, whose role in Enron's collapse is now coming under intense scrutiny.

He has agreed to surrender US$12 million he gained illegally from Enron partnerships to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. He could still face a jail term of up to 15 years and fines up to double the amount determined to have been fraudulently gained although his testimony against others at Enron could earn him leniency.

He is also to surrender $12 million, part of the funds he received for his involvement. He also faces civil charges to be filed today by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kopper reportedly ran a partnership called Chewco, which he helped create in 1997 to buy a pension fund's interest in an Enron partnership. Kopper and his domestic partner, William Dodson, invested US$125,000 that year, and in 2001 collected more than US$10.5 million from their investment.

The Houston-based energy company declared bankruptcy last November and was at the time, the largest corporate bankruptcy filing in US history.