WP: Former Enron Investor Relations Chief Defends Guilty Plea

[PhilipShore]

Washington Post,
Former Enron Investor Relations Chief Defends Guilty Plea
February 10, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901973.html

HOUSTON, Feb. 9 -- Defense lawyers attacked the guilty plea of a former Enron Corp. executive Thursday, calling the deal "pretty thin stuff" in an effort to advance their argument that witnesses had been intimidated into cooperating with the government.

But in his sixth day of testimony against former chairman Kenneth L. Lay and chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling, the company's onetime investor relations chief soundly rejected the idea.

"I don't think it's thin, or I wouldn't have pled guilty to it," Mark E. Koenig said of his August 2004 plea to a single count of aiding and abetting securities fraud.

Without prompting, Koenig then reminded jurors of previous testimony in which he described efforts by the company to meet or exceed Wall Street targets by two pennies in 2000, more than two weeks after the fiscal quarter closed.

[WhiteTara]

1. I like it that the prosecutors have placed this

in the human arena rather than the accounting arena. Following this trial is what gives me any pleasure lately. It's wonderful to know that Kenny Boy and Skilling aren't having any good days. Even if they get to go home and drink, their lives are destroyed. YEAH!!

[salin]

2. While I am glad to see their impending fall...

I can not forget that it was Lay that worked for years to push exec branch "rules changes" that led the way to an unregulated market long before their were any laws changed, any public discussion, any input from representatives of the people - and thus the minute he pushed the bush1 changes (approved in the hours before Clinton toook office, and signed off on in an unusual way by the wife of then Sen Phil Gramms) - Lay and company started the same game at state levels. Invisible lobbying of executive branch administrators to get "support" and rules changes that cleared the way for the big push in legislators to get energy dereg - and in California who helped "design" the system? None other than Ken Lay, himself as key consultant to the PowerExchange. He was plotting the looting going back to the late 80s. And we are left with the mess.

[WhiteTara]

4. which is why I love watching him squirm

and be worrried and to have sleepless nights. Even if he thinks * will pardon him, it is still very stressful to have to be in court every day. FOUR MONTHS of agony. Not enough to make up for what he did to us in CA (not only were we stolen from, we got the Boobengroper out of the deal too.

Yep, his trial is my happiness. May he get all that he deserves...life in prison.

[RSchewe]

3. My interest in this case has increased since seeing the Enron documentary:

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - http://www.enronmovie.com/

I highly recommend it. The part that covers what happened in California gave a good political perspective.