This week, two of the institigators of Enron's billion-bilking ways will face the music in court as foemer CEO Key Lay and his chief honcho go on trial for cooking the books and bringing the Energy giant down.
For many, Lay and cronies exemplify corporate greed at its worst.
As Business Week puts it:
The only remaining question of great consequence about Enron is whether its prime movers, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, will go to prison for their part in its transformation from icon of New Age corporate cool to synonym for Bubble Era greed and deceit. As the pair go on trial on Jan. 30 in Houston, it will be important to keep in mind that the jury's decision will serve only to fix criminal culpability. Even if Lay and Skilling are acquitted, the trial holds zero hope of redemption for Enron's Big Two. History's verdict is already in, and it is harsh: As two of the most inept executives in business history, Lay and Skilling are heavily to blame for the demise of a company that once employed 31,000 people and had a stock market value of $35 billion but which survives today in shriveled form under the protection of the bankruptcy code.
We should also remember that Ken Lay is a good friend of the President, a failed oil executive named George W. Bush.
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