Enron Ken Lay, Skilling Convicted. SOME justice done for those defrauded by the Enron Chairman and CEO....

Of course, unlike mere mortals, Lay and Skilling will fall back on a huge and almost unlimited "full court press" appeals process, and after that, an almost certainty that President Bush will sign a pardon releasing the pair from all consequences of their conviction for defrauding American consumers and investors.

What the article does not point out, and what Democrats FAIL to point out, is that ENRON was George W. Bush's NUMBER ONE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTOR through Bush's two Texas gubanatorial elections; through his 2000 primary election campaign (infamous for smearing John McCain's family in the South Carolina primary using "push polls"); through his 2000 presidential campaign, through the 2000 Florida recount debacle (Enron provided the private jets which ferried Bush Republicans from Washington to Florida and back); and Enron's duo even provided the Bush team with the cash $$ for the Bush inaugueration blow-outs in January of 2001.


Lay, Skilling convicted in Enron collapse

By Kristen Hays, AP Business writer
25 May 2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/enron_trial;_ylt=AgYoH3bG8uPL6CCazXFnpdOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy and securities and wire fraud in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

The verdict put the blame for the 2001 demise of the high-profile energy trader, once the nation's seventh-largest company, squarely on its top two executives. It came in the sixth day of deliberations following a federal criminal trial that lasted nearly four months.

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

The conspiracy conviction was a major win for the government, serving almost as a bookend to an era that has seen prosecutors win convictions against executives from WorldCom Inc. to Adelphia Communications Corp. and homemaking maven Martha Stewart. The public outrage over the string of corporate scandals led Congress to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley act, designed to make company executives more accountable.

Enron's collapse alone took with it more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs.

"The jury's verdicts help to close a notorious chapter in the history of America's publicly traded companies" said Rep. Michael Oxley (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. "Appeals aside, the end of the trial will mark the end of a dark era."

Enron founder Lay was convicted on all six counts against him in the corporate trial and all four in the personal banking trial. Former Chief Executive Skilling was convicted on 19 of the 28 counts in the corporate trial, including one count of insider trading, and acquitted on the remaining nine.