Text 2880, 118 rader
Skriven 2006-10-17 17:04:00 av ROSS SAUER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Enron crook gets off
============================
Well, well, well.

Looks like one Enron bastard is off the hook, simply because he died.

If there is such a thing as hell, I hope Ken Lay is roasting in agony.

BTW, this judge was appointed by Reagan.

Kenneth Lay's Conviction Erased From Record
Ruling Worries Employees and Investors Who Lost Billions

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; 3:34 PM

A federal judge in Houston this afternoon wiped away the fraud and 
conspiracy conviction of Kenneth L. Lay, the Enron Corp. founder who 
died of heart disease in July, bowing to decades of legal precedent but 
frustrating government attempts to seize nearly $44 million from his 
estate.

The ruling worried employees and investors who lost billions of dollars 
when the Houston energy trading company filed for bankruptcy protection 
in December 2001. It also came weeks after Congress recessed for the 
November elections without acting on a last-ditch Justice Department 
proposal that would have changed the law to allow prosecutors to seize 
millions in investments and other assets that Lay controlled.

With the judge's order, Lay's conviction on 10 criminal charges will be 
erased from the record. "The indictment against Kenneth L. Lay is 
dismissed," U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III wrote in a spare, 13-
page order.

But governance experts said Lay's name forever will be linked with the 
era's most complex and far-reaching corporate fraud.

"A lot of lives were ruined, both the perpetrators and the victims," 
said University of Tennessee corporate governance expert Joseph V. 
Carcello. "This happened on his watch. Even if he's not legally 
culpable, he's culpable as a manager."

Lay, 64, collapsed in a rental home near Aspen, Colorado, about a month 
after a Houston jury found him guilty of conspiring to mislead employees 
and investors about mounting financial problems. His death unleashed 
vicious Internet criticism and prompted conspiracy theories that were 
dispelled by a coroner's report and sheriff's deputies.

A man accustomed to flying in private jets and mingling with the Bush 
family, foreign diplomats, and owners of professional sports teams, Lay 
was brought low by a widening scandal after disclosures that Enron had 
disguised billions in debt and manufactured revenues out of whole cloth. 
He told the jury at trial earlier this year that he had a net worth of 
negative $250,000 after years of spending lavishly on homes, vacations, 
and his five children.

Federal prosecutors baited Lay into displaying a short temper and a 
flair for micromanagement on the witness stand and pounced when Lay 
could not explain why he sold more than $77 million in Enron shares back 
to the company in the months before its demise.

Legal analysts said the ruling by a federal judge in Houston closely 
hewed to long-held doctrine, which allows defendants to vacate their 
convictions if they die before they are able to exercise their right to 
appeal. The law hesitates to punish the dead, the analysts said.Samuel 
J. Buffone, a Washington-based lawyer for Lay, said, "We're very pleased 
with the ruling and are glad that the criminal case against Mr. Lay is 
at an end."

Separately, lawyers for the Lay family Tuesday asked the court to 
release a $5 million bond that was secured by the homes of several of 
Lay's children.

Regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission can still pursue 
their civil case against Lay's estate, but their task will be more 
difficult because they can no longer introduce the fact of his 
conviction and instead must prove all over again that he broke the law. 
The SEC case has been stayed pending resolution of the criminal issues, 
an agency spokesman said.

Ken Horton, a former Enron manager who was laid off alongside thousands 
of others in December 2001, said he had steeled himself for the 
conviction to be extinguished after word of Lay's death three months 
ago. But Horton, who pegged his retirement and savings plan losses in 
the six-figures, expressed "great" concern that he and other former 
colleagues would never be made whole financially. Horton said he has 
received only $4,000 to date.

"If I got ten cents on the dollar, I would be elated," Horton said.

The move shifts the spotlight onto Lay's handpicked protégé and fellow 
defendant Jeffrey K. Skilling, 52, who is set to be sentenced on 19 
fraud, conspiracy and false filings charges Monday. Skilling, who 
handled day-to-day operations at Enron until his abrupt resignation in 
the summer of 2001, faces more than two decades in prison.

Skilling is the sole survivor from Enron's top management ranks, and the 
one most likely to pay a heavy price for his decision to vigorously 
fight the charges against him. Earlier this month, Skilling laid out 
several avenues for appeal, including jury bias, faulty instructions by 
the judge, and what he called overreaching by prosecutors that infringed 
on his constitutional rights.

Former finance chief Andrew S. Fastow, whom Skilling has painted as the 
man most responsible for the company's downfall, pleaded guilty to two 
conspiracy charges and gave damaging testimony against his onetime 
patrons. A separate federal judge in Houston last month granted mercy to 
Fastow and sentenced him to six years in prison, a reduction of 40 
percent from the seemingly iron-clad deal his defense team struck with 
the government. The leader of an Enron employee's group later called the 
benefit to Fastow "a slap in the face."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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