A Look At The ENRON Bankruptcy Trials
If you have been following the news of business and economy sector of United States for some time you must be aware of the ENRON bankruptcy case. Even Hollywood has taken the chutzpah on it. In the 2006 movie, Man of the Year, the protagonist said in a Presidential Debate that politicians should be like ENRON, "We take your money and run!" Truly it has been one of the hardest hours of business sector and law of United States.
It was in 2002 - 2003 that conviction and indictments were made for evidence tampering and other crimes, since then the ENRON case has undergone a number of interesting turns and twists. On June 115 2002, Aurthur Anderson w as convicted for tampering with evidence and create problems in investigations. Seven other people were brought to justice in the following year. Andrew Fastow decided filing a plea-bargain. He was held guilty for 2 crimes for no more than a decade behind bars.
This was followed by Kenneth lay. Lay surrendered on July 7 the same year to the Federal Bureau Of Investigation. He was promptly indicted as a conspirator who tried to manipulate the financial results if ENRON. Charges were also leveled against him for giving false statements in the public and for furnishing such facts which made the status of ENRON's finances look way better than they actually were. Lay claimed to be innocent.
By the coming of October, things took a sharp turn. The federal court decided that Lay would be tired separately on the charges of bank fraud where it was said that he misused loan money to purchase ENRON stock. He was being tried with Skilling and Causey previously. For the rest of the charges the three were to stand a joint trial. Three days after Christmas of 2005, Causey took up a plea bargain. He plead guilty and got five years behind the bars. Else he would have been imprisoned for a decade. Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling decided to fight it out. The proceedings were started in January 2006. The main argument of defense attorney was that it was the failure of market confidence which sealed the fate of ENRON. The defense also said that the people who had already decided to file plea bargain were not guilty because no offense was ever committed. The prosecution lawyer said that the ENRON executives left no stone unturned to dupe the investors. The trial ran until late may 2006. Of the 26 charges leveled against Skilling, he was found guilty on 19 charges. Lay was charged on 6 points and he was found guilty on every single one of them. Lay died on July 5, 2006 in Colorado. Skilling was thrown behind the bars for 24 years and 4 months. A fine of $45 million was also slapped on him. Skilling appealed but he is in prison since December 13 2006. Following the ENRON bankruptcy, the company was liquidated.
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