Seven Enron executives, including the wife of former CFO Andrew Fastow have surrendered to authorities to face federal charges.

The wife of Enron Corp.'s former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow and six former executives of the fallen company's defunct broadband unit surrendered to federal authorities early Thursday.

Lea Fastow, 41, a former Enron assistant treasurer, walked into the Internal Revenue Service office in Houston shortly after daybreak accompanied by an attorney.

At the same time, the six men were surrendering at an FBI office in Houston. They included the former co-chief executive officers of Enron Broadband Services, Ken Rice and Joe Hirko; Kevin Hannon, EBS chief operating officer; Dan Boyle, vice president; Ben Glisan, treasurer; and F. Scott Yeager, another executive.

At least the feds avoided the temptation of public arrests. But they won't be able to resist parading them in handcuffs for a mini perp walk when they appear in court today on the charges.

A lawyer for Dan Boyle, one of the execs, said today, ""Prosecuting this guy is like prosecuting a piano player in a whorehouse."

Mrs. Fastow's lawyers are expected to assert that she is being used as a pawn to make her husband agree to cooperate against his higher-ups, Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Her husband was indicted previously on 78 counts of fraud.

Full Enron coverage since 2001 is available from the Houston Chronicle.