Skilling’s request for dismissal denied

Houston A judge rejected former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s request to dismiss insider trading charges pending against him in a court opinion made public Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, in a 26-page opinion, denied Skilling’s request to dismiss 10 counts of insider trading.

On Wednesday Lake accepted a guilty plea to securities fraud from former top Enron accountant Richard Causey, who was go to on trial alongside Skilling and Enron founder Kenneth Lay next month.

Skilling faces 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors for allegedly knowing about or participating in schemes to manipulate Enron’s finances so investors would believe a wobbly company was healthy. Lay faces seven counts of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly perpetuating the ruse after Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001, less than three months before Enron went bankrupt in December.

Both have pleaded not guilty, and are slated to go to trial Jan. 30.

Causey, their former co-defendant who also faced more than 30 criminal charges, pleaded guilty to a single count of securities fraud and agreed to help prosecutors in exchange for a seven-year prison term.

Boeing says Avion Group ordered more 777s

Seattle

Boeing Co. disclosed Thursday that Avion Group, an Icelandic company that leases and operates airplanes for other carriers, had ordered four additional 777 Freighters.

Chicago-based Boeing had previously listed the buyer of the four planes as “unidentified.” The order could be worth up to $928 million at list prices, although airplane customers typically negotiate steep discounts.

Avion Group had already announced an initial four-plane order for the wide-body cargo planes in September.

The company said the airplanes will be operated by its subsidiary, Air Atlanta Icelandic. It will take delivery of the freighters beginning in February 2009.

Boeing shares rose 48 cents to $71.44 in midday trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, close to its 52-week high of $72.40.

Google founders venturing into film producing

Mountain View, Calif. Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are making their first foray into the movie business, helping to finance a friend’s independent film.

The Internet moguls are the executive producers of “Broken Arrows,” the story of a man who loses his pregnant wife in a terrorist attack and then takes a job as a hit man.

A spokeswoman for Mountain View-based Google confirmed Brin and Page’s role in the film, but declined to discuss details.

The film is written and directed by Reid Gershbein, a computer graphics designer at DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., who became friends with the Google founders in the late 1990s when they were doctoral students in computer science at Stanford University.

“I can’t say how lucky I am,” Gershbein told the San Francisco Chronicle for a story Thursday. “They were extremely generous.”