Enron founder Kenneth Lay dies at 64
By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer 13 minutes ago
HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, who was convicted of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history, has died of a heart attack in Colorado. He was 64.A secretary at his church and another secretary for his lead criminal lawyer, Michael Ramsey, both confirmed the death. Lay, who lived in Houston, frequently vacationed in Colorado.
Lay, who faced life in prison, was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 23.
Nicknamed "Kenny Boy" by President Bush, Lay led Enron's meteoric rise from a staid natural gas pipeline company formed by a 1985 merger to an energy and trading conglomerate that reached No. 7 on the Fortune 500 in 2000 and claimed $101 billion in annual revenues.
He was convicted May 25 along with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling of defrauding investors and employees by repeatedly lying about Enron's financial strength in the months before the company plummeted into bankruptcy protection in December 2001. Lay was also convicted in a separate non-jury trial of bank fraud and making false statements to banks, charges related to his personal finances.
Too bad. He deserved to die in prison, not in Aspen.
13 comments:
It's really quite disgusting that you find it necessary to kick a corpse.
Too fucking bad. After all the lives Lay destroyed, I stand by my position that he deserved to rot in a cell and die alone in prison.
I'm not happy he's dead. But I'm more unhappy that he was living in Aspen. And still buying $200,000 yachts for his wife even though he's supposedly is $100 million in debt.
He ripped off all of his employees and millions of other people. Destoyed futures and undoubtedly cost some lives in the process and caused untold suffering on those whose savings simply vanished because of him.
If you want to head up the Ken Lay Memorial Society, go right ahead. It will be a small group.
Thanks for the link. I'll consider it an honor to represent the left on your site.
I questioned the point in kicking a corpse, you failed to address the point in your doing so. All you did was express some bitterness. Is kicking a corpse a matter of therapy for you then?
Is kicking a corpse a matter of therapy for you then?
No, I pay good money for therapy. I just wanted Lay to see the inside of a cell for his crimes.
I am not dancing on his grave... If wishing he lived long enough to go to prison is "kicking a corpse" then I guess I'm guilty as charged. I can live with that.
sickofspin, you might want to consider that somewhere out there, right this minute, there's another Big Time Operator wannabe, probably with an MBA in his past and a fast-burner trip up the corporate ladder in his future.
Greed is this guy's raison d'etre, "whatever it takes" his motto. Soon enough, decent people who work hard and play by the rules will learn this guy will gladly exploit them any way he can, telling them they're terrific while considering them suckers who deserve the shaft.
On the slight chance a little corpse-kicking might cause this future Kenny Boy type to think twice about where he's heading, I say go ahead and kick.
sickofspin sure is a fun guy, isn't he? His whole website is a monument to his political blindness. "Sick of Spin" and he listens to Fox News? What a joke.
He would love to pretend that neocons don't "spin", but in reality they are the absolute masters of spin. Which is, I suppose, the explaination for why he's ignorant of that fact.
Vermon,
Do you ever actually 'contribute' to a debate in a positive way? Do you even know how to do that?
Your baseless assumptions of me are noted.
FWIW, I contributed to a debate at sickofspin's blog. Calling the first post I came to there spin would be an act of charity.
Here's a bit of follow-up, and it's one for the books. I visited Sickofspin's blog. First post I came to was headlined, "Liberals are just nuts." This isn't something SOS wrote. It's one of those right-wing, Dem-bashing e-mails that circulate among our friends on the right. The e-mail screed was shot through with historical inaccuracies, distortions and guess what?
SPIN!
Anyway, I left a comment pointing out a couple of the historical inaccuracies. My comment was on topic, no bad language, not nasty in any way. I did suggest the anonymously written e-mail was so shoddy that SOS should kill the post.
I returned to SOS' blog today and my comment was gone, deleted.
SOS had modified the wingnut post, omitting one thing I had pointed out as flat wrong and modifying another thing that had an outlandishly wrong date on it, along with being highly questionable as to whether it ever happened.
I consider what SOS did intellectually dishonest and extremely shabby as far as blog etiquette is concerned.
Obviously, Sickofspin prefers a heat-free kitchen. So if you waste your time at his/her blog, don't bother commenting. Unless you agree or leave a compliment, your thoughts will get zapped.
Pathetic lack of cojones.
Funny. I'm not surprised. I waded into another liberal-bash thread over there and took sides with one of the other commenters there, Paul. He sent me an email warning me of exactly what you describe:
Mr. Furious,
Just wanted to warn you about Sicko. He will edit entries and delete postings so you look like you can't respond to his superior talking points. He has a bag of dirty tricks to make you look stupid. He is NOT for open and honest debate. Below is my direct response to his edit and deletions. He will also attack you via personal email instead of on the thread.
Just thought I'd tell you the truth...unlike Mike.
Haven't experienced it yet myself, and I was hardly the shrinking violet over there. I won't waste my time with a guy who pulls that shit. We'll see how it goes.
That's really amazing, Mr. F. It really does take all kinds.
I actually thought I was doing SOS a favor. I know I appreciate it if someone spots an error at Oh!pinion and calls my attention to it. I'll do a correction or fix it, and acknowledge it in a comment. No big deal.
Liberals are idiots.
I know you are, but what am I?
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