Enron's former chief accountant, Richard Causey, yesterday pleaded guilty to securities fraud in exchange for a possible seven-year jail sentence for his role in the 2001 collapse of the power-trading giant.

Mr Causey had been scheduled to face trial next month with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, but now is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors against his former bosses as part of his plea bargain.

With Mr Causey's plea, about 20 former Enron executives have now either been convicted of, or accepted responsibility for, crimes related to the company's failure.

Mr Causey pleaded guilty to count 19 of the superseding indictment. Counts 14 through 20 charge Mr Causey and Mr Skilling with securities fraud in relation to the filing of financial statements. Count 19 deals with the filing of the company's quarterly report for the first quarter of 2001. He also agreed to forfeit $1.25 million (€845,000).

Whether he will testify in the trial of Mr Lay and Mr Skilling is uncertain, but his deal with prosecutors calls for them to request a seven-year prison sentence that could be reduced to five years if he cooperates fully.

Mr Causey was a key figure in the huge financial scandal that drove Enron to bankruptcy in December 2001 amid revelations the company had used off-the-books partnership deals to hide billions of dollars in losses and inflate profits.

The scandal opened a window on corporate accounting misdeeds and abuses that led to a toughening of securities laws. It also tainted the Bush administration because Mr Lay had long been an ally of the Bush family.

The judge overseeing the trial of Mr Lay and Mr Skilling yesterday delayed the start of their trial to January 30th from January 17th. - (Reuters)