FBI director did legal work for Enron Corp.

The FBI acknowledged yesterday that Director Robert S. Mueller III did legal work for a Massachusetts subsidiary of Enron Corp. nearly a decade ago, but the agency said his involvement was not extensive enough to require him to withdraw from overseeing the criminal investigation of the bankrupt energy giant.



Assistant FBI Director John Collingwood confirmed in a statement issued in response to a Globe inquiry that Mueller had provided legal advice to Milford Power Co., an Enron subsidiary, ''on a single matter'' in 1993 when he was a partner in the Washington office of Hale and Dorr, the Boston law firm.

Mueller, a former US attorney in Massachusetts, was hired by Enron to determine if the company should refer for official investigation the subsidiary's purchase of a vacant 6-acre site in Milford for 15 times its assessed value.

Mueller's recommendation against a criminal inquiry so upset a private firm that had also investigated the real estate purchase that the firm stopped doing work for Enron.