Fastow was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in New Providence, New Jersey, the middle of three sons in a Jewish family. His parents, Carl and Joan Fastow, worked in merchandising. Fastow graduated from New Providence High School, where he took part in student government, played on the tennis team, and played in the school band.[1] He was the sole student representative on the New Jersey State Board of Education.[citation needed]
Fastow graduated from Tufts University in 1983 with B.A.s in economics and Chinese. While there, he met his future wife, Lea Weingarten, whom he married in 1984. Fastow and Weingarten both earned MBAs at Northwestern University and worked for Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company in Chicago.[citation needed]
While at Continental Illinois, Fastow worked on the newly emerging "asset-backed securities". The practice spread across the industry "because it provides an obvious advantage for a bank," noted the Chicago Tribune. "It moves assets off the bank's balance sheet while creating revenue." In 1984, Continental became the largest U.S. bank to fail in American history until the seizure ofWashington Mutual in 2008.[citation needed]
Based on his work at Continental, Fastow was hired in 1990 by Jeffrey Skilling at the Enron Finance Corp. Fastow was named the Chief Financial Officer at Enron in 1998.
Deregulation in the US energy markets in the late 1990s provided