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...Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, keen to engineer an encore, saw his opportunity when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were inaugurated as president and vice-president in 1993. To capitalize on Al Gore’s interest in global warming, Enron immediately embarked on a massive lobbying effort to develop a trading system for carbon dioxide, working both the Clinton administration and Congress. Political contributions and Enron-funded analyses flowed freely, all geared to demonstrating a looming global catastrophe if carbon dioxide emissions weren’t curbed. An Enron-funded study that dismissed the notion that calamity could come of global warming, meanwhile, was quietly buried...

As predicted, my Sunday column that praised the Treasury’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incited outrage from many readers. Typical comments? “A horrible deal for Americans.” “A sad day for America.” “Pity the taxpayer.” “Appeasement for China.” “It’s time for a taxpayer revolt.” As for who’s to blame? Anybody and everybody. Congress, Wall Street, Greenspan, Bush, Clinton, Hank Paulson, Freddie’s and Fannie’s CEOs and the Chinese. Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around. But let’s not just point fingers. It is time to take a hard look in the mirror and see where the blame...

Widow's filing answers complaint that seeks assets The widow of former Enron Chairman Ken Lay denies he committed any crimes, according to a filing Friday in the government's civil forfeiture case that is seeking nearly $13 million from his estate, including the upscale condominium they shared. On Nov. 14, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. denied Linda Lay's request to dismiss the case, which was filed after Ken Lay died of heart disease in July 2006. Werlein concluded that the government had made "ample allegations" of criminal activity tied to the cash and property in question and could pursue the...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

(4/18/07 - HOUSTON) - The widow of Enron Corp.'s founder Kenneth Lay said that she and not her husband is the owner of nearly $13 million in assets the federal government is trying to seize. The assets are the target of a civil forfeiture action against his estate by the federal government in its efforts to recover $12.7 million it claims were "proceeds of the fraud proven in the criminal case against Lay." Federal prosecutors were forced to file the civil action after Lay's convictions for his role in Enron's collapse were vacated following his death last year. In a...

When I wrote last week about the death of former Enron founder Ken Lay and the judge's decision that made his fraud and perjury convictions disappear, I was totally unprepared for what would follow.

Breaking

<p>Why else would a judge clear his record, columnist asks.</p> <p>I sometimes hear that Elvis Presley isn't really dead, a notion supported by the alleged sightings of "The King" at various shopping malls around the United States.</p> <p>I've heard the same thing about Tupac Shakur, the rap star who died in a hail of gunfire in Las Vegas 10 years ago. No one claims to have seen Tupac at a shopping mall. But the amount of music and the two feature movies released after his reported death make me think he's not really dead either.</p>

HOUSTON -- A federal judge Tuesday vacated the conviction of Enron founder Kenneth Lay who died in July, wiping out a jury's verdict that he committed fraud and conspiracy in the months before his company's collapse. Mr. Lay was convicted of 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in two separate cases on May 25. Enron's collapse in 2001 wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value and more than $2 billion in pension plans. Mr. Lay died of heart disease July 5 while vacationing with his wife, Linda, in Aspen, Colo. U.S. District...

Conspiracy theories abound in wake of Enron leader's death. HOUSTON — Mark Twain once said reports of his death were premature. In the case of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, reports of his death were national news, and there are still people who don't believe it. "Some people will go to any lengths required to escape the joint. Besides, he is not hanging out with Elvis. He's writing songs with Jim Morrison," said a posting to Dilbert creator Scott Adams' blog. Lay died July 5 while vacationing with his wife, Linda, in Aspen, Colo., and did in fact escape his...

Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay has just died, just over a month after being convicted of fraud, and almost five years after his company's cataclysmic collapse. The common perception of Lay is that he and other Enron leaders brought about the company's fall because, eager to make money, they schemed to bilk investors. The ethical lesson, it is said, is that we must teach (or force) businessmen to curb their selfish, profit-seeking "impulses" before they turn criminal. But all this is wrong. Enron was not brought down by fraud; while the company committed fraud, its fraud was primarily an attempt...

Lawyers likely to argue that entire case has effectively been voided BARRIE MCKENNA WASHINGTON -- Kenneth Lay's sudden death could prove to be an unexpected legal bequest to Jeffrey Skilling, his co-defendant in the landmark Enron Corp. fraud case. Mr. Skilling's legal team will almost certainly invoke Mr. Lay's demise to try to reverse his own fraud and conspiracy conviction or demand a retrial, legal experts said yesterday. That's because Mr. Lay's death Wednesday of an apparent heart attack effectively voids the entire case against the Enron founder, including the guilty verdict. Mr. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive officer...

The purveyors of revisionist political history are back at work this week, inspired by the death of Enron Corp. founder -- and convicted felon -- Kenneth Lay to revive the myth that were it not for Enron and Lay, California wouldn't have experienced its 2001 energy crisis. ... --snip-- Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the good manners to remain silent about Lay's death from heart disease three months before he was to be sentenced for lying to mask the failing company's condition. It was Lockyer who in 2001 told an interviewer that "I would love to personally escort Lay to...

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday he hopes Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay's "heart was right with the Lord" when he died before he could be sentenced on fraud and conspiracy charges. Bush called Lay, who was a friend of the Bush family and a large donor to the president's campaign, "a good guy." He said he was shocked to hear both about the Enron scandal and Lay's death this week from a heart attack at age 64. "I was really surprised," Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "You know, my hope is that his heart was right with...

With his death from a massive heart attack on Wednesday, Ken Lay cheated justice. And then some. Not only will the Enron founder not end his days in prison, but according to legal precedent, his entire case will be erased from the records.

...because Ken Lay's case may still have been appealed, Lay's death expunges the conviction from his record. This means that any orders to vacate his wealth are annulled, and his family gets to keep millions of dollars that they likely would have lost had he gone to jail.

It's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but Kenneth Lay's passing elicited little sympathy from average Americans on Wednesday. I spent much of the day trolling Internet message boards and blogs, polling Chronicle readers and talking to legal and other sources, trying to get a sense of how the public feels about Lay's death and how it will affect the legal proceedings against him. Lay was the former chairman and CEO of Enron, a name that became synonymous with corporate greed and wrongdoing, sparking a major reform movement in Congress. Enron also played a lead role ripping off...

"It is well established in this circuit that the death of a criminal defendant pending an appeal of his or her case abates, ab initio, the entire criminal proceeding." United States v. Asset, 990 F.2d 208 (5th Cir. 1993). In a recent Fifth Circuit decision, United States v. Estate of Parsons, 367 F.3d 409 (5th Cir. 2004), the court explained that "the appeal does not just disappear, and the case is not merely dismissed. Instead, everything associated with the case is extinguished, leaving the defendant as if he had never been indicted or convicted." In Parsons, the court vacated a...

Ken Lay’s sudden death could make it harder to recover any of his Enron loot, victims of the company’s collapse were warned yesterday. And even if they do get some money back, it could delay matters for a year or more. Federal prosecutors are so far refusing to comment on whether they will still pursue their $43.5 million legal claim against the former Enron chairman. But legal expert Michael Fee, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at top Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, says the claim may now be moot. The problem? Prosecutors would have been looking...

The government's forfeiture effort ahead of the planned sentencing of Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling this fall, however, has been thrown into doubt, at least in relation to Mr. Lay's assets since the death of a criminal defendant before his sentencing and the appeal process may void the criminal case against him. "Technically, he was found guilty, but that's extinguished as of today," said Joel M. Androphy, a prominent defense lawyer in Houston. ..... At issue, too, are Mr. Skilling's obligations to his lawyers. Mr. Petrocelli's law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, is awaiting more than $20 million of payments from...

How do you know Ken Lay is really dead?

I am no fan of corrupt businessmen and politicians, but I think we should cut Lay some slack. Why? He served our country. If serving the country shields Kerry and Murtha from attacks, the same should apply with Lay.

HOUSTON — Enron Corp. founder and former CEO Kenneth Lay, who was convicted for his role in one of the largest instances of business fraud in U.S. history, died of coronary artery disease and there was no evidence of foul play, according to a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy. Mesa County Coroner Robert Kurtzman told reporters in a televised news conference in Grand Junction, Colo., Wednesday that his preliminary examination showed clogged coronary arteries to be the cause of death. Lay died hours earlier on Wednesday while vacationing at a rental home near Aspen. Lay was awaiting an Oct....

Enron and the Clintonites The Clintonites may have been more accommodating than the Bushies. by David Brooks 01/21/2002, Volume 007, Issue 18 ON JULY 5, 1995, Enron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant. Enron, then a growing giant in energy trading, practically had a reserved seat on Clinton administration trade junkets. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who egregiously linked political donations to government assistance, accompanied ...

Clinton Enron Nexus Clinton Administration Procured Credit for Enron, Used CIA as Resource for Enron As I see the usual suspects in the media trying to manufacture a scandal over Enron involving the Bush administration based solely on association, I have to laugh. Clinton and his administration were intimately involved with Enron and Enron CEO Ken Lay during the Clinton years. Lay acted as a political ally for Clinton, collaborating with him to try and pass Fast Track (they failed) and on implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Lay turns out to be an old friend of close Clinton aid Mack ...

by Mark Finkelstein July 5, 2006 Merely because someone has just died doesn't mean you can't use the article announcing his death to take a swipe at President Bush. If you're the Associated Press, that is. In this article, published only minutes after Lay's death, the AP somehow found it pertinent , after only three short paragraphs announcing the death, to report that Lay was "nicknamed 'Kenny Boy' by President Bush." The MSM has gotten more mileage than a Prius coasting downhill out of W's 'heck of a job, Brownie' to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown in the wake of Katrina....

cause of death unknown

HOUSTON - Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were known as visionaries, hands-on executives, corporate titans directing the high-flying ship at Wall Street darling Enron Corp. Add another title: convicted felons. "Certainly we're surprised," a shaken Lay said Thursday after a jury capped a four-month-long fraud and conspiracy trial and in its sixth day of deliberations returned guilty verdicts against him and Skilling. "I think it's more appropriate to say we're shocked. This is not the outcome we expected." Besides all six counts in the main trial, Lay, Enron's founder, also was convicted of four charges of bank fraud and making...

Fiction writers documented the fall of Enron as a scandal to be linked to President Bush. Yet the U.S. Commerce Department has just released over 5,000 pages of documents that detail the Enron scandal during the Clinton years. The Commerce materials outline a long-standing and very close relationship between the Clinton administration and Enron. For example, in March 1999 U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley's trade delegation to China produced several sweet business deals, including a special little gem for Enron. Enron International China Pipeline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp. of Houston, Texas, signed a memorandum of understanding with...

Just on the News - Ken Lay convicted on all counts - Skilling convicted on most of the 28 counts against him. Quick jury verdict.

HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a case born from one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history. The verdict put the blame for the demise of what was once the nation's seventh-largest company squarely on its top two executives. It came in the sixth day of deliberations following a trial that lasted nearly four months. Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate trial related to his personal banking. The former corporate titans...

Breaking on CNN.

HOUSTON - Yet another clash of Enron trial titans is on the horizon, but it may be less explosive than the first. While jurors deliberate the outcome of the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, Lay is on trial again without a jury on charges stemming from his personal banking. The 64-year-old former chairman spent six days on the witness stand during the conspiracy trial, often combative and contentious with federal prosecutor John Hueston, who secured the indictment against Lay nearly two years ago. Lay is expected to square off...

HOUSTON - The automated signature machine did it. Attorneys for Kenneth Lay suggested bank loan documents containing terms he allegedly violated actually were signed by an automatic signature device in the Enron Corp. founder's office and not by him. Lay went on trial Thursday on one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements regarding personal banking issues. The trial, expected to wrap up as early as Tuesday, got under way the day after jurors began deliberating the nearly four-month-long fraud and conspiracy case of Lay and former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling. Lay is charged with...

HOUSTON (AP) A federal jury has begun deliberations in the fraud and conspiracy trial of former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

HOUSTON - The government bore down on Enron Corp. as it would the Mafia, intimidating top lieutenants into pointing fingers at their bosses because someone had to pay for crimes that preceded the company's stunning collapse, the lawyer for former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling said Tuesday. "This was all manufactured after the fact," Daniel Petrocelli declared in an impassioned plea for jurors to acquit his client of all 28 fraud and conspiracy counts against him. "Because it's Enron. After all, somebody has to pay. It's Enron." In a searing closing argument, Petrocelli sought to drive home the defense theme that...

HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling instigated a massive fraud before the company collapsed in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. Lay and Skilling committed crimes "through accounting tricks, fiction, hocus-pocus, trickery, misleading statements, half-truths, omissions and outright lies," prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler told jurors and a packed courtroom in closing arguments. "In this courtroom, ladies and gentlemen, the cover stories have been blown. Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling are still clinging to the cover stories," she said. On a large screen, Ruemmler displayed for...

HOUSTON - After exchanging some parting shots with his prosecutor, Kenneth Lay finished six days of testimony at his federal fraud and conspiracy trial Tuesday by professing love for Enron Corp., the company he founded, and the people who worked there. "I loved Enron very much," Lay said in a brief response to the final question from his lawyer, George Secrest. "And I loved Enron's employees very much. I spent half my professional life running Enron. I think we built a great company. We changed energy markets around the world. "I think the most painful thing in my life was...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron CEO Ken Lay sold $70 million in Enron shares back to the company to pay for personal luxuries such as renting a yacht for a birthday party, even as the company headed toward bankruptcy, prosecutors said on Monday. Lay, on trial for fraud and conspiracy along with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, has said most of the stock sales were made to pay off his millions of dollars in debts. Under cross examination by prosecutor John Hueston, Lay admitted he and wife, Linda, lived the good life and had trouble giving it up, despite Enron's...

HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay was expected to charm jurors the same way he spent decades charming politicians, analysts, investors and employees. But when he took the witness stand this week in his fraud and conspiracy trial, the ever-smiling diplomat and philanthropist morphed into a scrappy fighter. First he tried to take control of questioning by his own lawyer. Then he repeatedly bristled, snarled and quarreled on cross-examination with the federal prosecutor who had secured the indictment against him. His transformation was in stark contrast to that of his co-defendant, former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, whose lengthy...

HOUSTON - Federal prosecutors sought Thursday to torpedo Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay's image as a company champion, trying to show he used the ailing energy giant to bail himself out of personal financial woes in 2001. Lay obtained more than $70 million in loans from Enron throughout 2001 and repaid most with company stock, even as he encouraged employees to buy more shares. Lay didn't disclose those stock sales publicly because regulations required that sales of shares back to a company be reported only in the year after they occur. Unlike his co-defendant in his fraud and conspiracy trial,...

HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay dropped his famous affable persona as his cross-examination began Wednesday, snarling at a prosecutor who accused him of witness tampering when the ex-chairman and chief executive called several potential witnesses during his own fraud and conspiracy trial. Jurors who had been listening impassively snapped to attention. "Did you have any conversations to get your story straight for trial?" asked prosecutor John Hueston, equally primed for battle. "Can you elaborate on that Mr. Hueston?" Lay shot back. "I'm not sure what story you're talking about." The prosecutor noted that Lay called two Goldman Sachs...

HOUSTON – Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay declared his innocence Monday on the witness stand, somberly saying the company's legacy of lost jobs and wrecked retirement savings pained him even more than the loss of a loved one. Lay blamed the implosion of Enron, once the nation's seventh-largest company, on a series of devastating circumstances that included theft by the chief financial officer, negative press, a bear market and investor anxiety after the Sept. 11 attacks. “I don't think there ever was a conspiracy of any kind,” he said. His testimony, defending against criminal fraud and conspiracy charges that could...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Government star witness Andrew Fastow repeatedly admitted during cross-examination on Thursday he was a liar and a cheat as the defense tried to refute his testimony that former Enron Corp. chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay covered up their company's crumbling finances. He said he had no written documents to back up his allegations against his former bosses, but said they were part of a broad conspiracy among Enron executives to mislead investors while enriching themselves. "I was suggesting the senior management at Enron, not only Mr. Skilling, engaged in a pattern of actions that painted...

The former head of Enron's broadband business told jurors Tuesday that his mentor and friend Jeff Skilling pressured him to make his division appear to the public to be growing, even while the unit was in fact laying people off and had no revenues. Ken Rice, a 47-year-old Houstonian, said he repeatedly misled investors about the financial health of the company's Internet business. And he walked the jury through a March 2001 analyst conference call in which he said Skilling also repeatedly misrepresented the faltering division's health. On questioning by Enron Task Force Director Sean Berkowitz, Rice painted a picture...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. Chairman Ken Lay on Tuesday said he was the victim of a "wave of terror" by prosecutors and blamed his former chief financial officer for the energy company's spectacular downfall. In a preview of his defense at his criminal trial next month, Lay, in a speech to a Houston group, said he was only to blame for trusting Andrew Fastow, Enron's CFO, who has pleaded guilty to charges and will be the government's key witness against Lay and co-defendants. "We did trust Andy Fastow, and sadly, tragically, that trust turned out to be misplaced,"...

My favorite supporting character in the legendary strip, “Peanuts,” is Pigpen. His unique trait is raising a cloud of dirt everywhere, even on a clean, dry sidewalk. Pigpen came to mind when I saw the White House Press Corps’ question President Bush Wednesday on his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. First, the status of the nomination. Monday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid held a nearly unprecedented press conference with Harriet Miers, just hours after her nomination. Reid said that she was an “exceptional” candidate, and “the sort of person who should be nominated.” In short, the...

In the morning of March 11, 2004, Susan Lindauer woke to find five F.B.I. agents at her front door. After reading her her rights, the agents took Lindauer from her home in Takoma Park, Md., to the F.B.I. field office in Baltimore, where she was charged with having acted as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government and otherwise having elevated the interests of a foreign country above her allegiance to the United States. ''The only visible sign of stress is that I'm chain-smoking,'' she said when I met with her recently. Forty-one and free on bail, she wore...

Kenneth Lay, the disgraced former boss of Enron, is the first exec to pay for his website to pop up on Google and Yahoo websites in America. Lay is splashing out "no more than $3,000 a month" to appear alongside the results for anyone searching for his name or "Enron fraud". Click on his ad, and you can read stirring stuff about his philanthropy and good deeds.