Richard Alan Causey born is one of the prominent figures in the

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

accounting scandal. Causey was Enron's executive vice president and chief accounting officer. Causey graduated from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

with a bachelor's degree in accounting and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

. He then became a certified public accountant in the state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. He obtained a job at

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

, where he rose within the ranks and eventually became the head of the

audit team. Closely working alongside employees from Enron, he got to know the staff as well as the accounting procedures. He left Arthur Andersen and joined the Enron Capital and Trade Division. He eventually was promoted to chief accounting officer, where he signed off on the Special Purpose Entities that were Enron's downfall. He was fired from Enron on February 14, 2002, as part of an investigation by the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

. On January 22, 2004, Causey was indicted for

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...

and

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

charges in connection with his activities at Enron between 1998 and 2002. While prosecutors do not believe he skimmed millions of dollars from the numerous suspicious deals, he is believed to know details of many of them. Causey originally pleaded not guilty, but on December 28, 2005, he entered a guilty plea and agreed to testify against

Kenneth Lay Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...

and

Jeffrey Skilling Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventual ...

in exchange for a 5- to 7-year prison term. Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli reportedly responded that Causey was innocent, and simply broke under the pressure. On January 2, 2007, Causey reported to the

Federal Correctional Institution The Federal Bureau of Prisons classifies prisons into seven categories: * United States penitentiaries * Federal correctional institutions * Private correctional institutions * Federal prison camps * Administrative facilities * Federal correctio ...

Bastrop, Texas Bastrop () is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The population was 9,688 according to the 2020 census. It is located about southeast of Austin and is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. History Spani ...

. He was released on October 14, 2011.

References

External links

Indictment filed against Richard Causey

Richard Causey's campaign contributions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Causey, Richard Living people 1960 births American accountants American energy industry executives Enron people Businesspeople from Austin, Texas Place of birth missing (living people) McCombs School of Business alumni American people convicted of fraud Businesspeople from Houston American business executives American businesspeople convicted of crimes