Associated Press
List of Defense Witnesses in Enron TrialadvertisementRelated informat
HOUSTON (AP) - Here is a list of the 29 defense witnesses who testified in the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling:
_Kenneth Lay. The 64-year-old company founder repeatedly snarled, sneered and bickered with a prosecutor and even challenged one of his own attorneys over more than five days of testimony in his own defense. Lay blamed Enron's December 2001 implosion on a lethal combination of bad press that siphoned market confidence in a skittish market roiled by the 2001 terrorist attacks. He insisted he told the truth when he praised Enron's strength to employees and investors throughout the fall of 2001 when the company was spiraling.
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But on cross-examination Lay was bombarded with a slew of written warnings about Enron's accounting integrity that he received from various employees. Lay admitted he didn't investigate the complaints, saying he was too busy trying to save the company.
He also defended his former wealth and his use of Enron as a bank. Lay borrowed more than $70 million from Enron throughout 2001 and repaid those loans with company stock. He kept those sales to himself because he didn't have to disclose those sales publicly until 2002 under disclosure regulations in place at the time. But he told employees in September 2001 that he had bought stock -- a fraction of what he sold -- and encouraged them to do the same.
_Jeffrey Skilling. In 7 1/2 days of Skilling's testimony, he took some bruising hits that could seriously damage his credibility. Like the prosecution witnesses before him, Skilling lacked physical evidence to back up his claims that his accusers either lied about incriminating conversations and meetings, or misunderstood them. He defended financial structures prosecution witnesses said were created to hide losses from poor assets and investments as proper. He also defended partnerships created and run by former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow that bought Enron assets or acted as an independent investor, saying they were proper, although he acknowledged in retrospect that they were a bad idea.
Skilling's fate could hinge largely on whether jurors believe his story about his allegedly illegal stock sales. He said he couldn't remember placing an order to sell 200,000 shares of his Enron stock in early September 2001 three weeks after his abrupt resignation even though jurors heard an audiotape of him doing so on a telephone call to his broker. That sale was held up, and he ended up selling 500,000 shares for $15.5 million on Sept. 17, 2001. He insisted his fear of a market roiled by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks prompted the sale.
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