Enron Execs Guilty of Fraud and Conspiracy

Former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay was found guilty of each of the six counts of fraud against him, and his protege, Jeffrey K. Skilling, was convicted of 19 of 28 counts, The Washington Post reports.

The Post also reports that U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III found Lay guilty in a separate case of four counts of bank fraud.

Skilling’s lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, told members of the press following the verdict that his client plans to appeal.

Lay and Skilling both remain free on bond, and their sentencing was set for Sept. 11, the Post reports. They could possibly spend the rest of their lives in prison and live on in history as the ringleaders of a fraud at a company whose name became synonymous with accounting tricks and rule-breaking.

The Post reports that Enron’s bankruptcy filing cost thousands of workers their jobs, spooked investors into doubting the integrity of the stock market and spurred lawmakers to enact the most significant changes to corporate practices in more than 70 years.

Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty called the convictions a “tremendous win” for prosecutors and for Enron investors who “lost their jobs and their pensions, and investors who lost their savings.”

For more on fraud, read Warning Signs of Fraud and a previous fraud-related news brief, In Post-Enron World, Fraud Carries On.

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.

Compiled by Paul Kerstein