A Rocky Ending

...to a long, drawn out story. Close one chapter to the Enron saga:

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay has died of a massive heart attack in Aspen.

He was there with his family awaiting sentencing for his fraud and conviction.

According to the Houston Comical, Lay and wife Linda were vacationing at their Colorado property near Aspen when "his heart simply gave out." (Many Houston residents have since expressed surprise and dismay that he even had a heart.) No one in the local or national media seems to be asking the obvious question yet: If the Lays are as broke as they have been whining about for the past year or so, how is it they are still able to vacation in Aspen?

Of course, as recently as six weeks ago Lay was still professing his innocence of the fraud and conspiracy charges.

"I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me,'' Lay said outside the courthouse [immediately following his conviction]. "We believe God is in fact in control and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the Lord.''

Both men were expected to receive lengthy prison sentences in an Oct. 23 hearing before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake.

Lay had said more than once that he believed he would not spend a day in jail. One has to wonder if perhaps this is not quite what he had in mind.

The Real Brains of Enron

I remember hearing the phrase "the smartest guys in the room" bantered about a few times during the trial of former Enron chiefs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

I'm not buying it. They were caught and convicted.

On the other hand, this guy has to have been the smartest man in the company:

Lou Pai is the real mystery man in the Enron scandal. A former executive of the energy trading firm, he cashed in an estimated $270 million in stock and left the company before it collapsed, divorced his wife, married an exotic dancer, bought an enormous piece of Colorado, sold it and then disappeared into obscurity.

I have a feeling Lay and Skilling wouldn't mind a little obscurity right about now. Or the exotic dancer, for that matter.

Down Memory Lane

As most of the nation has by now heard, former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling have been found guilty in the jury trial that ended in Houston today. (Sentencing is set for September 11.)

Lay was convicted on all six counts against him in the trial with Skilling. Skilling was convicted on 19 of the 28 counts against him, including one count of insider trading, and acquitted on the remaining nine.

Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate trial non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake related to Lay's personal banking.

What many across the country may not be aware of is that Ken Lay was involved in a far more dastardly scheme, years before the 2001 collapse of the energy giant:

...[I]n 1994, [Sheila] Jackson Lee (serving her third term as a member of the Houston City Council) defeated incumbent Congressman Craig Washington in the Democratic primary for the 18th Congressional District of Texas; a victory which assured her the seat itself, as the district is overwhelmingly Democratic. Washington had previously made powerful enemies, namely Houston's downtown power brokers (such as then-Enron Chief Kenneth Lay), by voting against congressional bills favoring NAFTA and NASA...

Irked by [what] they perceived as Washington's overt and aggressive liberalism, Lay and other conservatives first convinced then Councilwoman Jackson Lee to run against Washington, then put their sizable deep pockets behind her and her campaign, even though she was a Democrat.

Get a rope.