Also see below:     
Enron Bosses "Stole to Pump Egos"    [

    Prosecutor: Lay, Skilling Committed Crimes
    By Kristen Hays
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 16 May 2006

Lay and Skilling considered themselves above the rules, prosecutor says.

    Houston - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay encapsulated the top-down view that he and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling were immune to rules that govern others during his contentious testimony in the pair's fraud and conspiracy trial, a federal prosecutor told jurors.

    In the government's closing argument capping the biggest fraud case to emerge from the scandalous Enron era, prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler on Monday displayed for jurors what she called a telling quote from Lay:

    "Rules are important, but they should not ... you should not be a slave to the rules either."

    She said neither were slaves to rules as they committed crimes "through accounting tricks, fiction, hocus-pocus, trickery, misleading statements, half-truths, omissions and outright lies."

    She beseeched the jury of eight women and four men to convict the pair of all charges against them, saying they "lied over and over and over again" and "bent rules, pushed rules and then pushed over the line" in the years before Enron sought bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

    Jurors will hear from the defense on Tuesday and begin deliberations Wednesday after getting the last word from prosecutors in the case, which lasted more than 14 weeks and featured 54 government and defense witnesses.

    Ruemmler said Lay and Skilling repeatedly lied to pump up Enron's stock price and win adoration from Wall Street and their peers.

    But throughout 2001 the stock price fell steadily. Skilling abruptly resigned in mid-August that year after only six months as CEO, leaving Lay to resume the role in addition to being chairman.

    At that juncture, both men could have told investors that the company's broadband unit had failed, the retail energy business was awash in losses, financial structures designed to lock in gains from assets and investments were crumbling, and asset values were overblown, Ruemmler said. Instead, both assured Wall Street and investors that Enron was in the best shape ever.

    "They chose to lie," she said.

    Ruemmler said both men chose not to probe unusual financial structures or conflicts of interest. Jurors will be able to consider whether the defendants deliberately avoided learning bad news, though Ruemmler pressed that option more with Lay than Skilling.

    "Over and over and over again, Mr. Lay chose not to ask hard questions. The law says you can't do that. You cannot escape liability by putting your head in the sand," she said.

    Lay, who took notes on a yellow legal pad, occasionally exchanged a smile with Skilling, who sat near him at the defense table. Sometimes they shook their heads in apparent disbelief.

    The defense teams contend that most of the eight ex-Enron executives who cut plea deals and testified against them admitted to crimes they didn't commit and lied about the defendants' culpability in hopes of gaining lenient punishments.

    Ruemmler noted each of the witnesses "came in and owned up to what they did," while Lay and Skilling, who both testified in their own defense, counter that no fraud occurred at Enron other than that committed by a few executives who skimmed millions from secret scams. They say bad publicity and lost market confidence sank the company.

    Ruemmler called their defense "absurd" and "ridiculous," echoing words Skilling used to describe some of the allegations against him during his testimony.

    "Hold them accountable for the choices that they made and the lies that they told," Ruemmler urged.

    Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors related to his activities from 1999 to August 2001. Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming mostly from the period after he resumed as CEO upon Skilling's departure.

    On Thursday, Lay will be on trial again before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, but without a jury in a case related to his personal banking. In that case, the government contends he obtained $75 million in loans from three banks from 1999 through 2001 and reneged on agreements not to use the money to carry or buy margin stock. He is charged with one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements to banks in the case.

    Lake plans to issue his verdict in the banking case, which is expected to last several days, after jurors in the larger conspiracy case render theirs.

    --------

    AP National Writer Erin McClam contributed to this report.

    Go to Original

    Enron Bosses "Stole to Pump Egos"
    BBC News

    Monday 15 May 2006

    Former Enron bosses Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling stole from investors both to line their pockets and stroke their egos, their trial has heard.

    The comments came from prosecutors presenting their closing arguments at the court in Houston, Texas.

    Prosecuting lawyer Kathy Ruemmler said the case centered around "the lies these men told and the choices they made".

    Mr Lay and Mr Skilling are accused of trying to hide $32bn ( 18bn) of debts at the firm. They deny any wrongdoing.

    The one-time US energy giant collapsed in 2001 when the debts were revealed. Thousands of people lost their jobs and investments.

    Mr Lay and Mr Skilling both say that other staff were to blame and that they were kept in the dark.

    Ms Ruemmler told the court on Monday that for both men "Enron was their ego".

    "Make no mistake," she said. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting rich but you can't get rich by deception, by cheating."

    The defence will make its closing arguments on Tuesday, and the jury is expected to begin its deliberations on Wednesday.

    "Deliberate Avoidance"

    Mr Skilling, 52, Enron's one-time chief executive, faces 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

    Mr Lay, 64, the firm's founder and former chairman, is charged with six such offences.

    Both could be sentenced to more than 30 years in jail if convicted.

    They suffered a blow last week when the judge ruled that jurors could find the men guilty of deliberately avoiding knowledge of massive fraud.

    Known as the "ostrich instruction", because it refers to a person sticking their head in the sand, the ruling means prosecutors can present a lower burden of proof to be successful.