...and justice for all?
The latest injustice in the Enron saga was delivered in Houston yesterday when Judge Sim Lake vacated the guilty verdict against former Enron CEO Ken Lay, who died of severe coronary artery disease in July. The decision relieves Lay's estate from the criminal and financial repurcussions of the 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy handed down in May. Lake's reason for vacating the verdict? That Lay was too dead to continue the appeal begun before his death.At first I thought that Lay's kicking the bucket was karma coming back to bite him in the ass, but it turns out that he's literally better off dead. Although Judge Lake's decision won't stop the civil trials that are ongoing or that will be started, it does relieve Lay's estate from having to pay hefty sanctions to the government.
I'm not so bloodthirsty that I think that Lay's widow should necessarily have to pay the price for her dead husband's crimes, but I certainly don't think that she should be able to profit from them, either. I mean, the little butt-nugget was lying to Enron shareholders and the public at large about the state of the company while cashing out his own stock, costing everyone hundreds of millions of dollars. Even if his widow was as innocent as a little lamb in this whole affair, she shouldn't be entitled to keep any of Lay's ill-gotten loot. Besides, if you're stupid enough to marry someone who bears such a startling resemblance to Elmer Fudd, you kinda deserve what you get.
5 comments:
I do not believe that the megabanks that lost money in this debacle are going to stop going after the estate of Lay in a civil manner.
On the plus side, you have to think of Skilling wondering what a bullet tastes like right now. That inner monologue has got to be horrible.
On the minus side, I think that twinkletoes Fastow might actually enjoy prison.
his wife had to know. wasn't the person handling Lay's finances his wife's son from a previous marriage?
that was your wifey, by the way.
lee's. not eric's.
Eric, I think I lost bowel control when I read your comment.
As for the anon comment, I vaguely recall that one of Lay's stepsons was involved at some point in handling his finances, although I think that he had actually tried to convince Lay to diversify his portfolio. Lay apparently took that to mean that he should leverage his stock by borrowing against them to invest in other assets, many of which bombed. That's why he was tried (and convicted) for violation of the federal restrictions against margin stock. I think that he was the first individual ever tried under that law, by the way.
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