Overview

Michael Kopper was Andrew Fastow's chief lieutenant at Enron Corporation, where he worked for more than seven years in the company's Global Finance division. On August 21, 2002, Kopper became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges, admitting to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering for his role in helping Fastow loot the company through off-balance-sheet partnerships. Kopper managed the Chewco Investments limited partnership, one of the key special purpose entities (SPEs) used to hide Enron's debt from investors. Chewco was named after the Star Wars character Chewbacca, a reflection of the whimsical naming convention that Enron's financial engineers used for vehicles designed to commit serious fraud. The partnership was created in 1997 to buy out CalPERS' stake in a joint venture called JEDI, and its improper accounting was one of the first dominoes to fall in Enron's unraveling. Kenneth Lay testified that he did not even know who Michael Kopper was despite Kopper managing hundreds of millions in Enron-related partnerships, an illustration of either Lay's willful blindness or the astonishing lack of oversight at Enron. Kopper cooperated extensively with prosecutors and provided testimony that helped build the case against Fastow and other executives. He was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.

Key Affiliations

Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (1)

Known Associates & Connections

Sources & Documentation

2 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports