Skilling attorney Daniel Petrocelli also cast doubt on a Causey plea. "Over the past year, I've spent a lot of time with Rick Causey. He is an honest man and consummate professional, who worked his heart out for Enron," Petrocelli said. "He never — let me repeat — never committed any fraud or criminal conduct of any kind. He knows it, and the government knows it."

Causey is the link between Andrew Fastow, who took a reduced ten year hit with cooperation to resolve his own and his wife's charges.

Causey, along with Skilling and another officer, were assigned by Enron's board of directors to sign off on Enron's transactions with partnerships run personally by Fastow that were at the heart of the company's downfall.

According to prosecutors, Causey and Fastow hand-wrote a document known as the "global galactic" agreement that essentially ensured the Fastow partnerships would not lose money in their Enron deals. Such agreements would have made the accounting for the deals improper.

Causey reportedly is low on funds. He now has his brother-in-law representing him in his related civil cases.

If the Government sweetens the pot enough, he'll plead.

For anyone interested in Ken Lay's side of the story, he's still talking and giving speeches and outlines his defense here on his website.