Friday, July 29, 2005
In a press release of the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Texas it tells how two national gas traders, one a former employee of Dynegy, and the other a "former El Paso Merchant Energy (“El Paso”) natural gas trader" had counts added to their indictment. They were originally charged with"conspiracy, false reporting, and wire fraud related to the transmission of allegedly inaccurate trade reports to industry newsletters which used the reported trades to calculate the 'index' price of natural gas in August 2000." The new counts now charge these two individuals "with additional counts of false reporting and wire fraud relating inaccurate trade reports used to calculate the 'index' price of natural gas in July 2000."
One of the effects of adding a new month to the charges is that if found guilty, it could mean a higher sentence if the loss amount increases.