Two Enron Attorneys Charged Wednesday

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged two former in-house attorneys at Enron Corp. with civil securities fraud Wednesday, as the agency continues to unravel a web of complex transactions and alleged corporate deception more than five years after the once high-flying energy company collapsed into bankruptcy.

The charges against Jordan Mintz, who was general counsel of Enron's global finance group, and Rex Rogers, the associate general counsel, were filed in a civil lawsuit in federal court in Houston.

Attorneys for Mintz and Rogers denied the SEC's allegations and said their clients will contest them.

The agency said they took part in a scheme to misrepresent transactions in Enron's financial statements. The SEC cited, notably, a venture once hidden in one of Enron's notorious off-the-books partnerships: Cuiaba, a power project in Brazil.