SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) - The former chief energy trader for bankrupt Enron Corp. pleaded guilty Thursday to federal wire fraud charges, admitting that he gave California's power agency false information in order to manipulate prices during the state's energy crisis.

"I was trying to maximize profits for Enron," Timothy Belden told U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins during a hearing in which he entered his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Belden, 35, who has agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation into Enron's role in the California power crisis, could receive up to five years in prison. He also agreed to forfeit $2.1 million in salary and bonuses that prosecutors said were tied to Enron's profits from the fraud scheme.

Public officials in California have long complained that business practices by energy companies, including Enron, helped create the state's power crisis, which resulted in price spikes and rolling blackouts in the summer of 2001.

"These charges answer the question that has long troubled California consumers -- whether the energy crisis was spurred in part by criminal activity," said U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan in a statement. "The answer is a resounding yes."

Belden admitted that, from 1998 through 2001, he participated in a scheme in which Enron gave false information to California's Independent System Operator, which oversees the buying and selling of wholesale power in the state's deregulated electricity market.

Belden worked in Enron's West Power Trading Division, based in Portland, Ore. As a result of the false information, Enron collected fees for relieving energy congestion that didn't exist on California transmission lines, and it received higher prices for supplying energy it said came from out of state that had, in fact, originated in California, according to prosecutors.

The revenues from Belden's trading unit rose from $50 million in 1999 to $800 million in 2001, prosecutors said.

"The conspiracy...allowed Enron to exploit and intensify the California energy crisis and prey on energy consumers at their most vulnerable moment," said Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson in a statement.

Houston-based Enron, once the country's seventh-largest company, was forced into bankruptcy last year after revelations that it had used questionable business practices to hide billions in debt.

Belden's is the second plea in the Enron matter. In August, Michael Kopper pleaded guilty to money-laundering and fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with authorities, helping prosecutors to close in on higher-ranking executives.

In October, former Enron Corp. CFO Andrew Fastow was charged with fraud for his alleged role masterminding a complex web of transactions that helped the energy trader obscure its financial condition.