NatWest 3 guily after all?

The Guardian is reporting that the Natwest Three are on the brink of a plea agreement which could involve an admission of wrongdoing in return for a lighter charges from the US government.

As the Guardian reminds us:

In the run-up to their extradition in July last year, the trio orchestrated a high-profile political campaign alleging that they were the innocent victims of an unjust treaty which allowed America to seize British citizens on the basis of scant evidence.

Among their supporters were senior Conservative politicians and business figures such as British Airways' chairman Martin Broughton, the retail tycoon Philip Green, Glaxo SmithKline's chairman Sir Christopher Gent and the London Stock Exchange chairman, Chris Gibson-Smith.

The trio staunchly maintained that they had done nothing wrong. Critics, however, pointed to correspondence seized by prosecutors in which the bankers discussed keeping their controversial dealings with Enron under wraps and, at one point, referred to their actions as "robbery" of an Enron off-balance sheet venture. Enron's disgraced former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, was scheduled to be the prosecution's star witness against them.

Perhaps there was some evidence after all.