THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 2002
NATIONAL NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 11A
Enron executive admits crimes, implicates others
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A former Enron Corp. executive acknowledged Wednesday that he raked in millions of dollars in a corporate shell game that also involved his high-ranking boss.
Michael Kopper's admission came as he pleaded guilty to money laudering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is the first Enron executive to admit to crimes since the company dissolved last year.
Kopper was the managing director of Enron Global Finance under former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. He told the judge he ran or helped create partnerships that earned him and others millions
while hiding debt and inflating profits at Enron.
"We think this is a substantial breakthrough in our investigation," said Leslie Caldwell, head of a nationwide task force of federal prosecutors probing the company's collapse. "His knowledge will become our knowledge."
Kopper apologized to those hurt when Enron went bankrupt in late 2001. He agreed to cooperate with investigators and surrender $12 million he gained illegally from Enron partnerships to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Caldwell said the money will go back to Enron shareholders.
He could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined up to double the amount determined to have been fraudulently gained.
His testimony against others at Enron could earn him leniency when he is sentenced on April 4, 2003.
Kopper was at the crux of at least three partnerships that conducted complicated business deals with Enron.
The partnerships were portrayed to investors and U.S. regulators as outside entities but secretly had too-close ties to Enron.
Kopper admitted funneling money to Fastow.
High cost predicted for drug
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - A new, experimental drug is raising hopes for AIDS sufferers with strains of the virus that are resistant to existing treatments, but the complex manufacturing process is expected to mean high prices and limited quantities.
Dubbed Fuzen by its developers, Roche Group and Trimeris Inc., the drug won a priority, six-month review from the Food and Drug Administration.
The companies hope to be approved and on the market next spring.
The drug is the first in a class
known as fusion inhibitors, which are designed to block HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from entering blood cells. It acts on the third stage of that entry process, known as fusion.
It is expected to prolong the lives of patients with drug-resistant strains.
"Everyone is so pleased about the drug itself," said Martin Delaney, founding director of Project Inform, an advocacy organization. "It is such a significant development. But we are terribly apprehensive about the cost."
Roche, based in Switzerland, and Trimeris, of Durham, N.C..
won't discuss pricing details until the drug is approved, but say Fuzeon is complicated to produce and will be expensive. Experts predict a cost of between $10,000 and $15,000 a year per patient.
The most expensive AIDS drugs now available cost about $7,500 a year, although some combination treatments approach $15,000 in annual costs.
Fuzeon's cost should be kept in perspective, said Dr. James Thommes, the drug's medical director at Roche, saying that it keeps people from expensive hospital stays and prolongs their lives.
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