Get used to the word Enron, it is here to stay for some time to come. As criminal cases wind their way through the courts, the trial for the class-action lawsuit filed by former employees and shareholders has been postponed again—this time to 2006.U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon set an Oct. 16, 2006 trial date this week, which is the third time a trial date has been set. Harmon was overly optimistic back in 2002 when she set a 2003 trial date to deal with the thousands of claims filed in 2001. The 2003 date was later postponed to 2005 and now to 2006.

Proving that the in the new post-Enron environment, the Securities and Exchange Commission has no patience for stonewalling, the SEC said Wednesday that the Bank of America Corp.

One of the biggest law firms in Dallas has agreed to pay $75 million to about 100 former clients who claim the firm designed and sold tax shelters that were rejected by the IRS.The firm, Jenkens & Gilchrist, issued a statement Friday saying the settlement "does not indicate we agree with any of the plaintiffs’ claims," and calling it "a sound business decision." The agreement, involving two class-action suits filed in 2002 and 2003, still needs court approval."Suffice it to say there's hundreds of millions of dollars in fees paid to people, and that doesn't include penalties" levied by

The most serious charge of enterprise corruption was tossed out Friday by the State Supreme Court justice overseeing the now five-month long trial of former Tyco Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski, 57, and former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, 43.The two remain on trial for alleged grand larceny, falsifying business records and violating state business laws, the Associated Press reported.

Some security experts believe the flood of malicious Internet worms over the last several days may be the work of competing hackers."It's not some attempt to destroy the world, but I see it as clearly concerted," said Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee's AVERT virus research team, as reported by TechWeb News. "There's some kind of competition going on between two individuals or two groups," he said, referring to the Bagle and Netsky worm writers.

With Grant Thornton’s American branch severing ties with its Italian affiliate in the wake of the Parmalat scandal, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is taking the opposite approach, saying yesterday it will "vigorously defend" two of its partners facing charges in the case.Deloitte took over auditing duties of the now defunct dairy giant from Grant Thornton in 1999 and remained the company’s auditor until the company declared bankruptcy late last year.

FleetBoston Financial Corp. has disclosed that its Fleet Specialist Unit will pay $59.4 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange.The settlement stems from an investigation of the NYSE’s five largest specialist firms, who were accused of failing to oversee traders who improperly traded ahead of their customers. In a preliminary agreement announced Feb.

Presidio Advisory Services LLC, a San Francisco-based company founded by two former KPMG partners, has been "informally" contacted by federal prosecutors looking into three of KPMG’s tax shelter strategies.KPMG, one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, admitted last week that it is the subject of a federal probe "in connection with certain tax strategies," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Thursday of this week that it has charged Jeffrey K. Skilling, Enron Corp.'s former President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, with violating, and aiding and abetting violations of, the antifraud, lying to auditors, periodic reporting, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws. The charges, which amend the Commission's Complaint filed against Richard A. Causey, Enron's former Chief Accounting Officer, in U.S.