Ken Lay

Enron founder Ken Lay dies
64-year-old former energy executive dead.
July 5 2006: 10:06 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Enron founder Kenneth Lay died early Wednesday in Aspen, a family spokeswoman said. He was 64.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said, "The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time."

In May, Lay was found guilty of nine counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of Enron, the company he founded that grew into the seventh largest company before it imploded after an accounting scandal.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/05/news/newsmakers/lay_death/index.htm?cnn=yes

Another example of, "if you are going to fuck people around, make sure you don't have a conscience", they always catch up to you.

farfromglorified wrote:

Do you apply this example to Enron's customers, shareholders and employees, or are they just "victims"?

Did they screw somebody around, like Lay?

farfromglorified wrote:

Certainly. They participated directly in the "screwing", so to speak. They funded it, sold it, participated in it, depended on it.

Why the need for stocks then? Seems to happen all the time. We all remember the good old days when the rich sucked everybody in and then watched, oh wait..............it still goes on today.

Anyhow back to the conscience catching up with you. Looks like it did wonders for Lay.

If you dabble in the stock market that is a problem. Knowing you are shafting the people making you richer is a bigger problem. Letting them get away with it is a huge problem.

I guess Lay must have thought about what real prison was going to be instead of the usual country club setting he thought he may get. Enough to explode a young honest heart better yet a ruthless heart.

MLC2006 wrote:

what story did you hear? because the story I heard was that the employees were basically investing in the company for their retirement because Lay and his henchmen were telling them that everything was going great when it fact, it was not. so when everything went under,

Yet this continues in corporations throughout America. Furthermore, not a single penny was forced to be invested. Each employee had the complete choice on where to invest their savings. Many Enron employees wisely chose a diversified strategy rather than investing everything based on the opinion of a non-neutral party.

many of the employees lost everything they had. so no, I don't think the normal employees were "screwing" anybody as much as they were the ones being screwed.

They were both screwing and screwed. Every Enron investor that lost "everything they had" did so based on their choice, not the choices of other fools like Lay and Skilling.

even flow? wrote:

Why the need for stocks then? Seems to happen all the time. We all remember the good old days when the rich sucked everybody in and then watched, oh wait..............it still goes on today.

Anyhow back to the conscience catching up with you. Looks like it did wonders for Lay.

If you dabble in the stock market that is a problem. Knowing you are shafting the people making you richer is a bigger problem. Letting them get away with it is a huge problem.

I guess Lay must have thought about what real prison was going to be instead of the usual country club setting he thought he may get. Enough to explode a young honest heart better yet a ruthless heart.

Certainly Lay is guilty of being a liar and being a crooked businessman. I'm not defending Ken Lay.

Lizard wrote:

Anyone think he may have done himself in? probably a choice that coward would make

Anypne think he is still alive? He had some powerful friends you know, and he was supposed to be doing jail time. Maybe he faked his death to get out of the country.

Sorry, I like to make up conspiracy theories every now and then.

farfromglorified wrote:

They were both screwing and screwed. Every Enron investor that lost "everything they had" did so based on their choice, not the choices of other fools like Lay and Skilling.

um no, they weren't screwing anybody if they didn't know they themselves were being screwed. of course no one forced them to invest, but if you invest, all the truthful information should be out on the table for it to be legal. this is why they were screwed, and why there were lawsuits. if Lay, et al weren't defrauding the normal Enron workers, they wouldn't have been investing in the company.

I just read this...

MLC2006 wrote:

um no, they weren't screwing anybody if they didn't know they themselves were being screwed.

So someone being "screwed" is incapable of "screwing" another?

of course no one forced them to invest, but if you invest, all the truthful information should be out on the table for it to be legal.

Ok. But that wasn't the rule then and it's not the rule now. How about something a little wiser: if you don't have access to all the information, don't invest.

this is why they were screwed, and why there were lawsuits. if Lay, et al weren't defrauding the normal Enron workers, they wouldn't have been investing in the company.

If the normal Enron worker would have followed the simple standard I named above, they wouldn't have been investing in the company (nor would any of the other investors).

The people who invested their funds with Enron were guilty of the same vague crime so many on the left constantly decry: greed. Greed is the lust for money in the absence of reason. Lay, Skilling, Fortune Magazine, Arthur Andersen, many of Enron's employees....all victims of their own greed.