by TChris

Although the Justice Department contends that it's just too difficult to prove to a jury the facts that govern federal sentencing -- and although it cites the amount of financial loss suffered by victims as its best example of a burdensome fact to prove -- its own experience in the ongoing Enron trial undermines its argument.

The same jury that convicted five men of helping push through Enron Corp.'s late 1999 sham sale of power barges to Merrill Lynch & Co. on Friday began deliberating factors that could lift their prison sentences to a dozen years or more.

It took the government and the defense only a day to put in their sentencing evidence. Not much of a burden, really.

A prosecution expert said Enron shareholders overpaid by $43.8 million for stock purchased in the three months following the company's January 2000 announcement that it met Wall Street earnings expectations, and determined that amount to be the loss stemming from the barge deal.