The three were employees of Greenwich NatWest, which was bought by Royal Bank of Scotland two years ago. They are each charged with one count of wire fraud, based on a scheme to defraud NatWest.

The men were identified as Gary Steven Mulgrew, 40; Giles Robert Hugh Darby, 40; and David John Bermingham, 39.

Justice department officials said all three men were believed to be currently in Britain.

They were the first charges filed by the government in its Enron probe since its successful prosecution of Enron auditing firm Andersen on charges of obstructing the government's investigation.

"As these charges demonstrate, our investigation into the collapse of Enron Corporation is active and ongoing," Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said in a statement.

The complaint, filed by the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, alleges that through a series of financial transactions, the former bankers had secretly invested in an Enron special purpose entity, Southampton LP, and were able to siphon off $7.3 million that should have gone to their bank.

Mulgrew, Darby and Bermingham, recommended that an interest in an Enron-related partnership held by NatWest should be sold for $1 million, the Justice Department alleged.

At the same time, the defendants were scheming with Enron executives to purchase that interest for themselves for only $250,000 and then liquidating it only weeks later for more than $7.3 million, according to the complaint.

The charges against the three bankers could be a boon to the government's case, said one former government prosecutor. The bankers might provide damaging testimony against high-level officials in exchange for leniency.

"They want to flip them," this former prosecutor said, who declined to be identified. By publicizing the arrests, the Justice Department may also be trying to convince others involved in the case to come forward and cooperate, he said.