Lay, Skilling found guilty at Enron trial Former CEOs convicted of securities, wire fraud HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a case born from one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history. The verdict put the blame for the demise of what was once the nationâs seventh-largest company squarely on its top two executives. It came in the sixth day of deliberations following a trial that lasted nearly four months. Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate trial related to his personal banking. The former corporate titans are now convicted felons facing years in prison when the panel found them guilty of running an elaborate fraud that gave the nationâs onetime seventh-largest company a glamorous illusion of success. Jurors declared through their verdict that both men repeatedly lied to cover a vast web of unsustainable accounting tricks and failing ventures that shoved Enron into bankruptcy protection in December 2001. The conviction was a major win for the government, serving almost as a bookend in an era that has seen prosecutors win convictions against executives from WorldCom Inc. to Adelphia Communications Corp. and homemaking maven Martha Stewart. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12968481/?GT1=8199
There is a whole other world out there that none of you are qualified to comment on...including myself...
A few years ago an anlalyst on a conference call observed to Skilling that he was the only guy in America who couldn't produce a valid income statement (for his company). Skilling blew his top and called the guy an "asshole". Skilling knew analysts believed the Enron financial documents were, at least, questionable, and then he had a very strong reaction to that information. Now he says he knew nothing? No way.