Enron's Skilling indicted, to surrender to authorities tomorrow

[PDittie]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2409277

Jeff Skilling, Enron's former CEO and COO, was likely indicted by the Enron grand jury in a sealed indictment today and is expected to surrender to the FBI in Houston early Thursday.

Sources told the Chronicle that the indictment named 50-year-old Skilling, who now becomes the top Enron executive to be accused of a crime in the trading giants stunning downfall.

Skilling has consistently denied any wrongdoing and testified before Congress rather than invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, as other executives did.

The foreman of the specially formed Enron grand jury told U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy at about 4:00 p.m. today that he had one sealed indictment from the panel, which met part of Tuesday and most of Wednesday. Enron Task Force prosecutors Sam Buell, Kathryn Ruemmler and Sean Berkowitz asked that the indictment be sealed and the courtroom be cleared of spectators.

The specially formed Enron grand jury that will consider these charges against Skilling is nearly 2 years old and has been working more frequently as this investigation intensifies.

=========================

To everyone who thought it was taking too long (or would never happen): I think the timing is pretty good.

They ought to be frog-marching Ken Lay this summer, during the conventions.

[Homer12]

1. Do you think Lay survives that long

Bushco would rather have him disappear then testify.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Can't wait to see the video

Another one bits the dust, another one bits the dust...

[junker]

3. Great great great great. Justice is a big ass boulder, but once you get it

rolling, it can crush a few slugs....

skilling should be made to eat shit daily.

now on to Bushies 'friend' kenny-boy....I can smell him sweating all the way up here in PNW....

[asjr]

4. I wonder if

Lay's passport has been taken away from him. It would not surprise me to find out that he has been flown to a country that does not recognize extradition to the U.S.

[montanacowboy]

5. What about Fastow?

and then Kenny Boy (who?)

[qwertyMike]

6. You mean "Mr. Lay"?

The supplier of Bush's jet during his campaign.
The artist formerly known as "Kenny Boy"!!!!!!!!!

That one?

[0007]

21. A DUer here that goes by "DemoTex" is a pilot that use to fly Ken Lay's

jet. If he comes around he'll tell you all about Kenny 'Boy'

[DemoTex]

28. Did I hear my name called? DemoTex to the rescue!

0007 is correct. I used to fly corporate jets for Ken Lay before he started Enron. Let me post at the end of the thread. I haven't read all of the responses yet.

[PDittie]

7. Fastow, and his wife, both plea-bargained

He got ten years, I think.

He's cooperating with the investigation, and it was probably some of his knowledge that enabled them to nail Skilling.

Houston Chronile website (link above) has everything you could want to know.

[catzies]

10. The Fastows got theirs last month.

HOUSTON - A federal judge said Tuesday he would wait until Lea Fastow's April 7 sentencing to decide whether to dismiss five criminal charges against the former Enron assistant treasurer who pleaded guilty along with her husband, Andrew, in an agreement with prosecutors earlier this month.

Lea Fastow, 42, pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns related to Enron's ill-gotten gains. Her deal calls for a five-month prison sentence and a year of supervised release, including five months of house arrest. U.S. District Judge David Hittner said he would decide later whether to accept it.

Andrew Fastow, Enron's former finance chief, agreed to a 10-year prison sentence that will make him the highest-ranking executive to do time in the case involving the collapse of the energy company.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/7812308.htm

[markses]

15. Fastow copped a plea earlier this year

He has, no doubt, provided the requisite goods on Mr. Skilling to cut his federal prison time down from 130 years to a mere 10 years, and just 6 months for his wife. I'll betcha the brother kept tons (literally) of the shredded documents.

[ixion]

8. Kenny Boy... he should be surrendering too...

you think that's gonna happen? :eyes:

[ctex]

13. It will be much tougher to get to Lay

The people who have copped pleas so far were all part of Skilling's management team who moved up in Enron as Skilling moved up into the CEO position. While they would have interacted often with Skilling they probably has very little "real" interaction with Lay. Lay has a very hands-off management style and over the past decade was seldom to be found in Enron's HQ building (Paris, Zurich, London, NYC, DC and Aspen were his favorite haunts).

Sadly, the trail of indicitments may end with Skilling.

[Bandit]

16. How many CEOs does Enron have.

I thought Lay was The CEO and Skilling was financial officer.

[ctex]

17. Skilling was COO and then replaced Lay as CEO

IIRC, Skilling became President and COO of Enron Corp. in 1997 replacing Rich Kinder. Lay was then CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Several years later (early 2000?) Skilling got promoted to CEO while Lay continued as Chairman. When Skilling resigned from Enron in Aug (?) 2001 about 4 months before the Chapter 11 filing, Lay resumed the CEO job.

Prior to becoming President of Enron Corp. Skilling ran Enron Capital and Trade (energy trading, oil & gas producer financing, etc.) and several similar organizations. He never served in a corporate finance job, but put his boys Fastow and causey in charge of corporate finance and accounting respectively shortly after becoming President.

[gristy]

9. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Once convicted, he should be sentenced to 30 years of physical labor.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

11. After Bush loses in Nov. can you say "Presidential Pardon"?

Sure you can. :puke:

[joeunderdog]

22. That's why they want them to get sentenced before Nov.

There's been no rush so far. Why the flurry of activity all of a sudden?

Is this plausible?

Also, if Shrub pardons these criminals, perhaps the threat of aggressively pursuing criminal prosecution of all the assholes in his cabinet whose crimes have gone unaddressed thus far will change his mind.

[a_random_joel]

12. I want a PERPWALK!

Then a deal cut to bring in Lay.

Right around Halloween would be perfect.

[Nevernose]

25. You'll see it in OCTOBER. (n/t)

n/t

[arcane1]

14. "sealed indictment"??? UNSEAL that damned thing!!

:bounce:

lock 'em ALL UP!!!!!

[kclown]

18. Lay has a good legal defense. Use it yourself the next time

you set up a scam.

Lay's financial profits came from repaying large cash loans
from Enron with shares he received in options.  If he had sold
the shares in a public market and used the (cash) proceeds to
repay the loans, he would be guilty of insider trading; i.e.,
he's a corporate insider and the buyers are not.  But he
didn't; he transferred the shares from himself to Enron,
presumably at the day's price.  N.B. - the other party was
Enron.  You can't be more insider than the corporation whose
shares you're tendering.  

Exquisitely clever.  Never mind that the loan program was
probably his idea (and was obviously copied by Koslowski at
Tyco).  Bernie Ebbers also used this scheme.  It should be
illegal for executives to borrow from their employers, and it
probably will be soon.  But too late.  

Lay will walk.  His wealth is safely in cash borrowed from
Enron and repaid with shares which are now worthless. Tough.

Two opposite examples are Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.  Both
are more wealthy than Lay, but only by virtue of their
shareholdings.  I don't know Gates' details, but Buffet pays
himself $100k/year.  Neither is stupid, and could have set up
a looting program like Lay and Koslowski's.  

[0007]

26. This is "bunko" all the way and under the definition

of swindling an unsuspecting person and workers that went along with the scam. It was a confidence game that Ken Lay played to the max. Setting up phoney rooms with shills as customers and bogus information on giant screens to draw in the suckers. A real sting operation.

junior knew how the game was played and probably played the game at Harken. Kenny 'Boy' got his name from junior and it wasn't because he was the sucker. CEO, Ken Lay, had close connections to the Bush family — had been contracted in a cozy relationship to undertake feasibility studies for the Unocal-Delta consortium. Enron Corporation had also been entrusted --in liaison with Delta-- with pipeline negotiations with the Taliban government.

Ken Lay has gotta go down!!

[DiverDave]

19. They should be made to pay the

money back.
Every Nickle.
To much to hope for I guess.

[aeon flux]

20. When are they going to indict Cheney

he need to hand over the Enron documents he's been hiding.

[Nevernose]

23. Just in time to counteract the latest CNN polls, no?

n/t

[scarface2004]

24. skilling is bush s cabana boy!

ask him how much he 'contributed' to the gop?!

well?

[yellowcanine]

27. Kenny Boy next - then Cheney and Bush

The worm is turning.

[0007]

41. Yes and maybe the Cliff Baxter death may come to light soon!

[leesa]

29. Sure to be pardoned by the fascist Bush

Can't have his partners in crime doing jail time, now can we?

[DemoTex]

30. DemoTex on his former boss, Ken Lay

Due to time constraints, this will not be up to my normal standards. It will be, more-or-less, stream-of-conscience with maybe one iteration of spell-check. Bear with me.

First and foremost: Ken Lay will never do the perp walk. Get over that. If Skillings does a deal with the GOV, part of that deal will include a total protection of Lay ... OR ELSE (can you say CLIFF BAXTER?).

I have known Ken Lay since about 1981 or so (+/-, know what I mean, Vern?). That was when Jack Bowen brought him from Florida Gas to Transco (The Transcontinental Gas Pipeline) in Houston. I flew Learjet 55s, Learjet 25s (for a short while), and Lockheed L-1329s (JetStar II's) for the company. I'll skip the bullshit and go to several germane points.

1. Ken Lay had his first wife committed to a mental institution in Pennsylvania for alcoholism. At the time he was dating his current wife, Linda. Linda had worked with Ken at Florida Gas. A few weeks after the commitment, Lay divorced wife #1. Shortly thereafter he married Linda (who shed tears on a morning show about the family financial plight after the fall of Enron). Actually, I liked Linda very much. She also liked me. That was before she got real-rich.

2. Ken Lay knew GWB in the early 80s. At least well enough to give the VPs son a ride from DC to Houston on the JetStar II. I was in the left seat, ____ was in the right seat, and GWB, Jr. was in the jump-seat on takeoff and landing.

3. I flew Ken and Linda all over Europe in the Lockheed JetStar II. CA: 1982.

4. Ken left Transco for Houston Natural Gas. Then bought InterNorth of Omaha, to form ENRON.

5. In September 1986 I did a feature article about Enron in an aviation trade magazine. That was my last direct contact with Ken Lay.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

31. CLIFF BAXTER- is anyone asking questions about that?

I mean, and real credible people? or are they afraid of being Baxterized?

[0007]

39. Howdy DemTex, nice to hear from you again -

I do have a question for ya, what is your gut feeling about Ken Lay ever being nailed and possibly going to the joint?

[susu369]

42. Du is my lifeline

What amazing and intelligent people (such as DemoTex) are here to share firsthand their knowledge.

Thank you!

[DemoTex]

32. Kick

Watch the surrender closely. Very closely.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

38. kick back!

[lebkuchen]

33. Italy's Parmelat CEOs and their underlings have all been arrested

perp-walked before New Year, while Kennyboy was skiing in Aspen.

[Virginian]

34. Why is it taking so long?

Are they feeding us Scott Peterson to distract us from asking this question? Why is the Peterson case of national interest, anyway?

At one point, MSNBC had the Abram's Report on three times a night with this "fluff and filler" for the news.

[0rganism]

35. Chappelle Show had an amazing segment about the two legal systems

There was a "special edition" of Law & Order, where a pension-fund raiding CEO gets the crack cocaine justice system, and the black cocaine dealer gets CEO justice.

I was impressed.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Late evening Skilling article from the Houston Chronicle, more info.

(snip)
Feb. 18, 2004, 11:17PM

Skilling indicted, likely to surrender
Ex-CEO is highest Enron exec to be accused
By MARY FLOOD
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Jeff Skilling, the ex-CEO credited with cultivating the culture that led to Enron's burgeoning success and its stunning crash, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday and is expected to surrender to the FBI in Houston early today.

Sources told the Chronicle that the sealed indictment named Skilling, 50, making him the top Enron executive to be accused of a crime in the trading giant's downfall.

"This is the Holy Grail the government has been pursuing for two years," said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey. "This is a vindication in the minds of the public that the dramatic downward spiral could not have occurred without the knowledge of those at the top."

Skilling has consistently denied knowledge of any wrongdoing and testified before Congress he had done nothing improper.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2409808

[0007]

40. The heat is being turned up, 'eh JudiLyn?

"Legal experts familiar with the cases expect that Fastow, who agreed to serve 10 years in prison for two counts of conspiracy, gave prosecutors information that aided the case against Skilling."

Now to get this dog to bark against 'Kenny Boy' - I'm laying 9 to 5 for a yelp! Hey maybe, the finger might come out on Baxter's death. Or is this Kenny insurance?

[BruinAlum]

37. Whoa! This just made my day!

:bounce:

[Hotler]

43. Yea baby!

n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

44. Skilling

During the 2001 energy crisis, which Enron did much to manufacture, Jeff Skilling like to joke that the difference between California and the Titanic was that "When the Titanic went down, at least the lights were on."

Enron itself was also a Titanic that he help to manufacture.

There's no room for you in the lifeboat, Jeff.

[savistocate]

45. Satisfaction here..

offset by headline today, Bush campaign added 50,000 new donors. Past month --$13M, Feb $4.5M. And yet small piece of $$ funneled to them. That and last nights Frontline--offshore tax schemes continue. 17% corp taxes pd until Bush give-aways
now7%.