Timothy Belden
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Timothy Norris Belden, born circa 1967, holds a master's degree in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley and spent five years working as a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he coauthored papers on energy markets and lost money investing in environmentally friendly wind projects. He is the former head of trading in Enron Energy Services and considered the mastermind of Enron's scheme to drive up California's energy prices. Mr. Belden worked hard at uncovering regulatory loopholes and was the brains behind many of the trading strategies that resulted in the California electricity crisis. Belden pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of plea bargain and has been very helpful to authorities in convictions of many top executives.
Belden was sentenced on February 14, 2007, to two years of court-supervised release and must forfeit $2.1 million. [1] Federal prosecutors recommended probation because Belden cooperated in the case, assisting with the prosecution of senior Enron executives.[2]
Jeff Richter was also sentenced to probation. John Forney has not yet been sentenced.
The maximum statutory penalty for conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ยง 371, is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. None of which are being met by Belden or the other convicted accomplices John Forney [3] or Jeffery Richter [4]. All three pleaded guilty to and were convicted of the same one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Belden was known to have received a $5 million bonus from Enron as a reward for the profits he extracted from California for Enron.[5]
