A jury found three former executives of Enron Corp's broadband Internet unit not guilty on several charges on Wednesday, and a US federal judge declared a mistrial on other counts against them and two other defendants.
Defence lawyers who were given jurors' voting cards told reporters the jury had acquitted former Enron Broadband Services Co-Chief Executive Joe Hirko and former technology executive Rex Shelby of a number of counts of insider trading and money laundering, but deadlocked on conspiracy and fraud charges.
Former technology executive Scott Yeager was acquitted of conspiracy and fraud charges, but the jury deadlocked on more than 100 charges of money laundering and insider trading lodged against him.
The jury also deadlocked on conspiracy and fraud charges against former finance executives Kevin Howard and Michael Krautz.
Prosecutors contended in the 2 1/2-month trial that the unit's executives overpromoted EBS' networking capabilities to stock analysts, whose positive reports caused the defunct energy giant's stock price to jump in early 2000.
US District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the jury not to discuss the verdicts with the lawyers or the media in case the government decided to bring the men to trial again.
"We would likely have to move to another state to try this case again," Gilmore told the jury.
Earlier on Wednesday, Judge Gilmore asked the 12-member panel to continue working after they told her they could not reach a decision on several of the charges.
Lawyers for the defendants said the verdicts were confusing, but they were pleased with the not guilty decisions handed down on 24 counts.
However, the US Supreme Court threw back one of the convictions, saying a jury was improperly instructed before finding former accounting giant Arthur Andersen LLC guilty of obstruction of justice in 2002.
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