Pity the Fool

[linazelle]

NOT


Ken Lay's trial is revving back up after three years. He, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey were the last three to face charges. One of the three, Causey, has plead guilty and stands to testify against Lay and the other defendant.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/enron/3551214.html

Causey pleads guilty, leaving just Skilling, Lay

By TOM FOWLER and JOHN C. ROPER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Prosecutors are expected to gain valuable ammunition in their case against Enron's former top two officials from ex-Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey's guilty plea this afternoon. ...The plea deal calls for a sentence of seven years in prison that could be reduced to five years if he cooperates "fully" with the government. He also agreed to forfeit $1.25 million.

...April 21 is set a tentative sentencing date for Causey.
...Lay faces 11 criminal counts, many of them focused on the last few months of the company's prebankruptcy operations. Skilling faces 35 counts.

...David Berg, a Houston defense attorney who has followed the case, said the Lay and Skilling teams may try and compare Causey to David Duncan, the former Arthur Andersen executive who pleaded guilty in connection to the 2002 document shredding case. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a guilty verdict against the accounting firm and Duncan's guilty plea was withdrawn. "Duncan pled guilty, but when he got on the stand it was pretty clear he was innocent," Berg said, referring to testimony Duncan gave under cross examination. "I think the main hope of the defense will be to make the case that Causey cratered under pressure, that he just pled so he could avoid a long jail sentence.




Lay is quibbling now to further delay the trial and to gain permission to bring in testimony about those who have signed cooperation agreements. The testimony he wants to introduce? That the witnesses against him used porno and drugs. :eyes:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3576015.html

Lay, Skilling lawyers fight bid to exclude lurid details on witnesses
By MARY FLOOD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

...Ex-Enron executives Skilling and Lay filed a response today to government requests that there be no mention made of any prosecution witnesses' proclivities for pornography, unlawful drug use, soliciting prostitutes or having extramarital affairs.

...Skilling and Lay's lawyers argued such allegations may not be beside the point but may highlight a witness' truthfulness, and in the case of illegalities, reasons for cooperating with the government. They also argued drug use could be a reason for impairment of memory or perception. The defendants complained today that in a sealed motion the government seeks to exclude evidence of one of the government's star witnesses' pornography habits. Lay's lawyer Mike Ramsey and Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli argue that these matters could be used to attack the testimony of these government witnesses and should not be out of bounds during trial.

Prosecutors argued that these areas, including solicitation of prostitution, do not have anything to do with the Enron case and do not go to the truthfulness of the witnesses.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679706.shtml

Enron's Ken Lay: I Was Fooled

(CBS) …When Lay was subpoenaed to testify before the Senate, he refused to answer their questions. But now, Lay sits down with Correspondent Scott Pelley to finally talk about the the lying, and the downright incompetence behind the rise and fall of Enron.

…The failure of Lay’s company left 4,000 people without jobs, and wiped out savings and pensions. Enron went bust owing creditors $65 billion dollars. And Lay, once revered, was mocked in the Senate, lampooned in the press, and finally, last summer, charged with fraud by federal prosecutors.

Lay faces a maximum statutory sentence for these charges of 175 years.

…What responsibility does he take, as chief executive officer, for the failure of Enron?

“I have to take responsibility for anything that happened within its businesses,” says Lay. “But I can't take responsibility for criminal conduct of somebody inside the company.”

“This is what I call the Elmer Fudd defense -- that I went to work every day and was paid $6 million a year and had a Ph.D. in economics -- and somehow, despite all of this, I didn't know anything that was going on. It's laughable,” says Bill Lerach, a lawyer who sued to stop document shredding by Enron’s accountants. Now, he’s leading an investor lawsuit against the company, its bankers, its accountants and Lay. :rofl:

“What was he doing every day in his office? Reading comic books? This man was the CEO of the company," says Lerach. “He had an obligation to be informed about what was going on in that business every day in every way. And he utterly failed to do it.”

… Lay golfed with President Clinton and was particularly close to George and Barbara Bush. Years later, when their son became president, Lay flew the Bushes to the inauguration on an Enron plane...

…Lay also told 60 Minutes he didn’t know about another scandal brewing in the company.In 2000, when California was suffering a power crisis, Enron traders were manipulating electricity flows to jack up profits. They were even taped boasting about it. …

[NanceGreggs]

1. What was he doing every day in his office?

Reading "The Pet Goat"?