A federal jury today convicted former Enron Corp. top executives Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay of multiple fraud charges, writing a powerful coda to the government’s four-year-old push to hold executives accountable for wrongdoing on their watch.
Skilling, 52, and Lay, 64, once stood near the pinnacle of American business, as the energy trading powerhouse they created out of a stodgy pipeline company grew to become the nation’s seventh-largest public company. But their fortunes collapsed in a heap along with the business when it declared bankruptcy in December 2001.
That’s the first good news in quite a while. The law and order party loses one of their own, but that’s the breaks. So at what point does bush pardon him?
That’s an interesting question because it’s one of the few mysteries that still remain about our Decider in Chief…we know that he values loyalty fiercely, but does he value it more than his legacy at this point? If Libby gets convicted, would he pardon him? DeLay? Abramoff?
If a pardon good enough for fine, upstanding citizens like Marc Rich and Pincus Green, then it’s good enough for these two crooks.
Bush: “Ken who?”
I’m guessing Marc Rich and Pincus Green didn’t have much influence over our nation’s energy policy, policy which includes an illegal invasion and occupation of a major oil-producing country (Iraq), and attempting to sabotage democracy in another (Venezuela).
Also, ask the average California taxpayer/energy consumer who they’d rather see hung from a lamp post: Marc Rich, or Kenneth Lay.
Thank god the government finally nailed that crook who performed all these dastardly deeds while The President Who Shan’t Be Named was in office!
If it weren’t for the law and order republicans, this guy would still be running scams!
Ya you guys. It’s just like you lefties to condemn a guy just because he was found guilty.
I can’t wait until the NY Times assigns a reporter to do as much digging on the Bush/Lay relationship as they’ve done on the Bill/Hillary marital updates. Bush has been lying from the beginning on that one. What a cowardly scumbag he is.
One of my whacko liberal e-mail friends used to rant and rave about Ken Lay and why the Bush Administration was letting him get away with his crimes. Naturally, what really happened was that it was a complicated case that the Justice Department made certain it had right.
So, the Bush Administration does prosecute Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, and after a long and complicated trial, both men are convicted — and the leftists are out, once again, using it as a hammer to attack the President.
Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
Y’all can fantasize all you want; there isn’t going to be a pardon for Mr Skilling or Mr Lay.
Dana, I remember all that too. Oliver used to do it. “Why isn’t Ken Lay in handcuffs yet??” First they said Lay wouldn’t be prosecuted because of Bush. Then when he was indicted, they whined about how long it took (as though justice cannot be served unless indictments and convictions are handed down within a week). Then they floated theories that Justice wouldn’t prosecute the case hard enough so he could be acquitted.
And now like you said, Lay is convicted of multiple counts and will spend a lot of time in jail and it’s still not good enough.
How many Bush Pioneers have been indicted now?
Honestly, I don’t see a pardon being given. With all the talk about Bush and Lay being closer than some subatomic particles, pardoning Lay would not be in Bush’s best interest. Besides, with the angry Enron ex-employees and California energy customers, Lay might very well be safer in a 6-by-8 than in the “wild.”
And the righties think that the convictions mean that the Bush administration is “doing their job”.
-Umm, the convictons are for the fraud cases -not the illegal manipulations of energy prices (how did the “Energy Crisis” in California continue (ack, Cheney)?), which already died a quiet death in the “liberal” media.
Keep in your seats kids, the sentencing -and time served- is where it also matters.
Remember, Charles Keating served 4 out of the 40 years he was sentenced to for being the one of the chief orchestrators of the S&L Scandal -under yet another administration that “did their job” (When they were not selling HAWK missiles to Iran).
Run along Jay, time to make another Robert Byrd joke…
OK, now what ought the punishment for Messrs Skilling and Lay be? Remember, they are first-time, non-violent offenders. Such offenders are frequently (though certainly not always) sentenced to relatively short prison terms, followed by home detention and a lengthy, supervised probation.