In 2001, Andrew Fastow was named chief financial officer of the year in the United States.

But in October, his high-flying career at Enron took a nose-dive when he was sacked after the company reported losses of more than $600m.

He was allegedly responsible for creating a web of off-balance sheet partnerships with external companies that allowed him to hide Enron’s very large losses.

He was also found by an internal Enron investigation to have secretly made $30m from managing one of the partnerships.

Mr Fastow was one of the first Enron executives to be summoned by the Securities and Exchange Commission. His apparent disappearance last December sparked wild rumours that he had fled the country.

When he re-appeared at a press conference, he would only speak through his lawyer.