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The NatWest Three, also known as the Enron Three,〔 〕 are three British businessmen - Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew.〔 In 2002 they were indicted in Houston, Texas on seven counts of wire fraud against their former employer Greenwich NatWest, at the time a division of National Westminster Bank. After a high-profile battle in the British courts they were extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States in 2006. On 28 November 2007, each pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in exchange for the other charges being dropped. On 22 February 2008 they were each sentenced to 37 months in prison. Initially they were jailed in the US, but were later repatriated to UK prisons to serve out the rest of their sentences and released from custody in August 2010. ==Background== In the year 2000 the three had been working for Greenwich NatWest, then a unit of NatWest bank, later acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The three were involved in Greenwich NatWest's dealings with Enron Corporation. As a result of these dealings NatWest owned a stake in a Cayman Islands-registered partnership called Swap Sub. Swap Sub was a special purpose entity created by Andrew Fastow, Enron's CFO, ostensibly for the purpose of hedging Enron's investment in Rhythms NetConnections, an internet service provider. Swap Sub's assets consisted of cash and Enron stock. Its liability was an option giving Enron the ability to require it to buy Enron's entire investment in Rhythms NetConnections at a predetermined price in 2004.〔Fox, pp. 152-53〕 In addition to NatWest, Credit Suisse First Boston held an equal stake in Swap Sub. The remainder was owned by a partnership managed by Fastow.〔 In March 2000, Enron decided to terminate the hedging arrangement with Swap Sub. Fastow managed to persuade Enron to pay Swap Sub a $30 million fee to terminate the option and recover the Enron stock it owned,〔Fox, p. 159〕 even though, because of a decline in the price of the Rhythms stock, "Swap Sub owed Enron a ton of money". $10 million of the payment went to Credit Suisse First Boston; Fastow falsely claimed that the other $20 million was going to NatWest, but in fact only $1 million did so. The payment, which was formally agreed on 22 March 2000, resulted in large profits for Swap Sub, enriching several Enron employees who had acquired ownership interests in the partnership.〔Fox (2004), pp. 159-60〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「NatWest Three」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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