By Kristen Hays
The Associated Press

HOUSTON - Now that prosecutors have secured a guilty plea and cooperation from Enron Corp.'s former finance chief Andrew Fastow, criminal charges against the company's former top accountant won't be far behind, sources said.

Like Fastow, Enron's chief accounting officer Richard A. Causey answered directly to former chief executives Kenneth Lay and his successor, Jeffrey Skilling.

Authorities were preparing a criminal complaint against Causey on charges stemming from the Justice Department's two-year investigation of the energy giant's collapse, sources said last week.

But the parties involved in the guilty pleas from Fastow and his wife wanted those secured before moving on to Causey, sources said. Snags in plea talks for Lea Fastow put any action against Causey on a back burner.

With that now done, Causey could surrender as early as today, but more likely next week, the sources said.

In pleading guilty Wednesday to two counts of conspiracy to fraud, Andrew Fastow admitted he and other senior managers fraudulently manipulated Enron's financial results and that he engaged in schemes to enrich himself at the expense of Enron's shareholders.

His indictment, handed up in October 2002, also referred to the chief accounting officer as having a secret deal with Fastow ensuring that Fastow wouldn't lose money when one of many shady partnerships he ran did business with Enron. Causey was chief accounting officer when the partnerships were operating.

Fastow accepted a 10-year prison sentence and agreed to forfeit $23.8 million in cash and property. Lea Fastow pleaded guilty to one count of filing false tax forms. She is awaiting a judge's decision on whether to accept a plea agreement that would send her to prison for five months and keep her confined at home another five months.

Mark Hulkower, one of Causey's lawyers, didn't return calls for comment Thursday. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra declined to comment.

Causey's proximity to the former top executives at Enron could help prosecutors build cases against Skilling and Lay if he cooperates and has incriminating information. Neither Skilling nor Lay has been charged, and both have steadfastly denied wrongdoing.

Lay's attorney, Michael Ramsey, said Thursday that his client felt a "sense of betrayal" after the Fastows' pleas.

"It's a betrayal of trust that's tragic in its proportions," Ramsey said.

A week after Enron announced devastating third-quarter losses in October 2001 - stemming in part from what was later revealed as some of Fastow's schemes - Lay told analysts he had confidence in Fastow. But Fastow was ousted the next day because in the intervening hours, top banks told Lay they would keep doing business with Enron only if Fastow resigned, Ramsey said.

The attorney also said Lay would soon start talking publicly about Enron, most likely through an opinion piece in a newspaper that Ramsey wouldn't identify.