Posted on 07/06/2006 5:39:11 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
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 for judge Sim Lake, who presided over Lay’s conviction in May, to make a simple “order of restitution” at the sentencing hearing in October. That would have forced Lay to pay money back to victims directly.
Now, says Fee, that hearing, and that order, won’t happen.
“He doesn’t get sentenced any more, so the order of restitution cannot be imposed,” said Fee yesterday.
Other lawyers yesterday added that Lay’s early death would further lead to his six convictions being extinguished in the eyes of the law.
It looks like he really did cheat justice.
To the end he protested his innocence, relying on the good old public relations strategy of “deny, deny, deny.”
Now, to pursue their claim, victims will have to rely on lawsuits against Lay’s estate, Fee said. That is much more difficult, and will take much longer.
“I think it lengthens the process,” Fee said. “It could lengthen the process by a year.”
That gives those managing Ken Lay’s estate more time, and room, to, ahem, “shield” the assets.
The usual way to try to protect those assets is to give them to your wife or children or to a trust.
Claimants may then have to prove in a civil court that Lay purchased the home with the proceeds from his fraud.
It’s all great news for the lawyers pursuing the claims.
Among the other potential beneficiaries of Lay’s death is his partner in crime Jeff Skilling. He was convicted on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and other crimes.
Skilling, who was said to be far too devastated by yesterday’s news to speak, has only a long shot at getting an appeal, let alone a new trial.
But if he did, lawyers observed yesterday, he could make a new defense by blaming it all on Lay . . . who, of course, is no longer around to refute the claim.
Let the conspiracy theories begin!
In the twilight zones of the blogosphere and talk radio, the death of Enron crook Ken Lay is already generating wacky mutterings.
Theory one: He’s still alive. The White House, Delta Force, the CIA, Fox security, etc., etc., whisked their old friend away to South America to save him.
Theory two: They killed him. Lay was about to cut a deal, fingering old friends like the president and the vice president in the Enron con, in return for a lighter sentence. So the White House, Delta Force, Halliburton, etc., etc., stepped in.
Why do I suspect Michael Moore and Oliver Stone are already looking at treatments?
Meanwhile Mark Palmer, former Enron spokesman and close friend to Lay, offered his own take.
God intervened, he said, to save Lay from the injustice of jail.
“I think Ken was a very spiritual man,” Palmer told reporters yesterday. “I think he believed that the Lord had a plan for him and hopefully this is a better plan.”
Once, life imitated art. Now it imitates satire.
The Kos can sell stock options on Leopold's new venture.
Yep, Cheney made sure Lay's death was faked due to Lay's knowledge about the Haliburton/Enron/Iraqi Oil/Area 51 conspiracy...
Skilling could have blamed it all on Lay whether Lay was alive or not.
But Skilling's strategy has always been to lay the blame at the feet of Andrew Fastow.
Fastow was far and away the worst person in the whole Enron story - but he turned state's evidence and got a maximum of 10 years in prison. And that's a sentence he doesn't have to serve until the whole Enron investigation is over years from now and which will probably be subject to early release.
Had Lay not died yesterday, he would have died in prison, and Skilling may well die in prison himself.
The more one looks at the evidence, it seems that Fastow was the criminal mastermind who thought up the scams, Skilling was the boss who encouraged Fastow to come up with more and better scams, and Lay was the hands-off CEO who had to have known something fishy was going on but who preferred to pursue a policy of see-no-evil-hear-no-evil rather than do his fiduciary duty.
And true to form, Fastow is the one who figured out the best deal for himself.
BINGO!
It'll be simpler than that: "Bush had him killed before he could start talking." It's a "Crawford-cide". ;)
Let the games begin. And don't believe what you read in the papers.
P.S. Interested in a Freeper in Congress? Keep in touch with me.
Congressman Billybob
Ever see this film ?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413845/
No. I read the book it was based on.
I am so glad you posted that about Fastow. So many people think he was a minor player in all this.
Fastow and his wife cut a deal early in the scandal. In fact it was Fastow who was the mastermind of the intricacies of the various companies. Skilling was president for only a few months and then resigned. He probably realized what a hornet's nest he had got himself into. Lay was the PR guy who was always lobbying Washington.
Andy Fastow is a real snake. He ran to the prosecutor's office first and cut an incredible deal for himself and his wife. He is still sitting on the big fortune but don't look for it in any US bank.
And few people realize that Fastow was a debt financier for a large failed S&L before he came to Enron.
I think she refused the deal her own husband put together and went to the Feds, who gave her one year and her husband 10.
What seedy people.
Ken Lay did a wonderful job with the power brokers of D.C. and New York. He was charismatic and everybody loved him - before the scandal. He definitely did not mastermind intricate financial schemes.
I think both he and Skilling gradually began to see the house of cards and the schemes. Skilling's response was to resign, months before the collapse. Lay's response was to jump in and try to fix it.
Nobody wants to hear that though. They want blood revenge and want to think Andy was a minor playor. No way. He's the real deal.
Unless one is a whacked-out conspiracy theorist, that should be good enough.
Any proof it wasn't paid for?
THAT is exactly what is on my mind.
And, IMO, what got Danny Pearl killed.
ping
?????
What in tarnation are you talking about?
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