Reply #42: For Enron foes, some similarities [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0604150262apr16,1,3213254.story

HOUSTON -- They grew up in Illinois with high-achieving older brothers, went to college in the Deep South on academic scholarships, and then moved on to Harvard.

Both have worked practically non-stop over the past two years preparing for the battle of wits set to unfold between them here as the Enron Corp. criminal trial reaches a pivotal point next week.

With one of the best young prosecutors at the Justice Department facing off against the defiant former chief executive of Enron, the stakes hardly could be higher.

Sean Berkowitz, the 38-year-old head of the Enron Task Force, must succeed in undermining Jeffrey Skilling's carefully crafted testimony, or the government crackdown on white-collar crime stands to lose its biggest case. Skilling, the 52-year-old former chief executive of Enron, must fend off his relentless fellow Harvard alum, or face the prospect of more than a decade in prison. Neither man is accustomed to losing.

It will be a cross-examination for the books, predicted John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia Law School professor who has tracked the case. "I think it will be long and extensive and it will make all the difference," he said. "You won't see a flash of lightning. It will be like a slow drip of water."

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