ENRON JURORS FIND LAY, SKILLING GUILTY

From the Houston Chronicle:

A federal jury convicted former Enron chiefs Ken Lay on all counts and Jeff Skilling on most counts today, marking the climax of one of the most notorious corporate scandals in U.S. history and nearly ensuring prison time for two of Houston's best-known executives.

The jury heard 16 weeks of testimony and arguments and made its announcement early on its sixth day of deliberations. The eight-woman, four-man panel found Lay guilty of all six counts. They convicted Skilling on 19 of the 28 counts against him.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake set a sentencing date of Sept. 11. The two men remain free on bond.

In Lay's separate personal banking fraud trial, Lake found Lay guilty on all four counts.

And

When asked whether he could admit that he had broken the law, Skilling replied, "No. I didn't.''

"We fought the good fight,'' Skilling said. "Some things work; some things don't.''

Shortly before 3 p.m., Lay also made a brief statement to the media outside the courthouse: "Despite what happened today, I'm still a very blessed man. At my left is this beautiful lady that's my wife. I have a very warm, loving family. And, most of all I believe God, in fact, is in control and that, indeed God works all things good for all who love the lord. We love our lord, all this will work for good."

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Well, I don't have much to say about this other than that I'm glad these two corporate scumbags are getting their comeuppance. But this is no victory for the common man. The conditions that created the context wherein Lay and Skilling's crimes took place still exist, by and large, because the Congressional and SEC reforms enacted in the wake of the wave of corporate and accounting scandals a few years ago essentially amounted to a band-aid over an open artery. That is, Lay and Skilling broke the law because of a business and political culture that rewards and respects vicious corporate behavior. The awful thing is that most white collar crimes like theirs are not even illegal because the cozy relationship between corporate America and Capitol Hill is such that corporations write the laws and staff the agencies that govern them--the Enron gang simply crossed a line, and, given the favorable climate, thought they could get away with it. Indeed, Lay and Skilling still believe that they did nothing wrong. This attitude, that it's not only okay but desirable to shaft rank and file Americans, continues to infect Washington, both the politicians and the law itself. This is definitely going to happen again because nothing has changed.

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