Charter and Wire Fraud

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Charter's former chief operating officer pleads guilty," by Robert Patrick--

The former chief operating officer of Charter Communications Inc., the nation's fourth-largest cable operator, pleaded guilty Thursday of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to inflate subscriber numbers to meet Wall Street's expectations.

David G. Barford, 46, of Chesterfield, also agreed to testify at the trial in February of two other Charter executives. In exchange, the U.S. attorney's office dropped four counts of mail fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.