HOUSTON – As lawyers for Enron’s former leaders prepare to start their defense next week, another potentially more dangerous trial looms for founder Kenneth Lay.

Mr. Lay is scheduled to be tried on four separate criminal charges related to personal bank loans, with the case opening as soon as the jury begins deliberations in the current trial, in which both Mr. Lay and former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling are charged with fraud in Enron’s collapse.

The unusual double jeopardy is the result of a bet Mr. Lay’s legal team placed – and lost – two years ago. Mr. Lay sought to face trial alone rather than with his protege Mr. Skilling, who ran the company’s daily operations.

Government lawyers pounced on the strategic opportunity. The judge’s ruling, in what may be the worst possible outcome for Mr. Lay, gave prosecutors not one but two chances to convict the former titan. The judge kept Mr.Lay in the major fraud case, which includes Mr. Skilling. But he split off into a separate trial four narrow fraud charges against Mr. Lay that relate to personal bank loans.

[Yesterday, as the prosecution rested in the larger case, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake dropped two counts of securities fraud and one count of lying to auditors against Mr.Skilling, leaving 28 criminal counts against him; the judge also dropped one securities fraud count against Mr. Lay.

All the dropped counts pertain to crimes that allegedly occurred in the first quarter of 2000. Prosecutors didn’t present evidence dealing with that time span, the Associated Press reported.]

The second proceeding, to be decided by the same judge, will begin a mere two hours after jurors retire to consider the broader charges.