I do not know whether Skilling or Lay are guilty or not, whether they participated or not, whether they were aware or not, in what happened at Enron. That is what the jury is there to decide.
It is not surprising that, facing jail time, that they would minimize their role even to the point of apparently not having even been at the office most of the time. They want to walk and will do and say what is necessary to walk. Again, they may be telling the truth and did not know anything, I will leave it to the jury.
But let us assume that they are indeed telling the truth. Here are the two most senior executives of what was once a top twenty world company who did not know what was going on in their company and were just riding the wave.
What does this say about senior management and their performance and is there any doubt that laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley were and are so necessary.
Shouldn't they be giving back the multimillion dollar bonuses these gentlemen took home?
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Defence lawyers in the Enron trial yesterday argued that Jeffrey Skilling's frustration that the collapsed energy trader was not more open about off-balance sheet deals suggested the former chief executive wasnot aware of the fraud involved.
Under cross-examination yesterday, Andrew Fastow, the government's star witness, testified he had jotted down notes in October 2001 documenting calls by Mr Skilling, who already had left the company. The notes, from two separate calls, showed Mr Skilling's frustration at Enron for not "telling its story", saying, "they should give us medals for doing all of these deals".
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