Ex-NatWest bankers sentenced to 37 months in jail

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge sentenced three British bankers, known as the "NatWest 3," to three years and one month each in prison on Friday for their role in an Enron-related fraud case.

David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby received their sentences from U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr.

Prosecutors had accused the men of conspiring with former Enron Corp Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow to defraud National Westminster Bank Plc, or NatWest, of $19 million, dividing $7 million among themselves.

In November, Bermingham, Darby and Mulgrew each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

But under a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors, the former bankers agreed to serve a sentence of 37 months.

"I'm fully prepared to accept the consequences of my actions," Darby told the court, after noting that seven years had passed since the fraud.

Darby's Houston attorney, Dick DeGuerin, called the men victims of the unethical activity at Enron that led to its collapse.

"Andy Fastow and the culture of greed at Enron corrupted everyone and everything it came in contact with," DeGuerin said after the sentencing. The men "are as much victims as anybody."

Bermingham, Darby and Mulgrew, former employees of Greenwich NatWest, a division of National Westminster Bank, were indicted in 2002 and arrested in 2004.

After losing a lengthy extradition fight, the men were sent to the United States in July 2006 where they have been free on bond and living in the Houston area as ordered by the court.

As part of their plea deal, the men had agreed to pay $7.35 million in restitution to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc , which now owns NatWest.

Enron, the world's largest energy trader before its December 2001 collapse, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors after investors learned it had used off-balance-sheet deals to hide billions of dollars of debt.

The meltdown, the second largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, sparked a series of shareholder lawsuits and criminal charges against the company and management.

(Editing by Dave Zimmerman, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)