Monday January 28 9:48 AM ET
Lay's Wife: Ex-Enron CEO Is Honest Man
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The wife of former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay defended her husband on Monday, saying he was an ``honest, decent, moral'' man who did nothing wrong in the devastating collapse of the energy trading giant.
In an interview with NBC's ``Today'' show, Linda Lay said her husband, who quit as chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Corp. (ENRNQ.PK) last week, had been grossly misunderstood and was victim of ``mass hysteria'' surrounding the biggest bankruptcy case in U.S. history.
``Nobody even knows what the truth is yet. The only thing I know, 100 percent for sure, is that my husband is an honest, decent, moral human being who would do absolutely nothing wrong. That I know 100 percent,'' she said.
Linda Lay, whose five children also defended their father, said she could understand the anger and loss felt by Enron employees when they recalled her husband's publicly upbeat attitude toward the company before it dived.
Much of the criticism of Lay has centered on mounting evidence he knew of the energy company's debt-ridden position even as he was advising his staff to buy Enron stock, which is now worthless.
``If I were back there listening to all the things that were being said I would absolutely have to say, 'What is wrong here? How can all of this be happening without someone doing something terribly wrong?''' Linda Lay said.
But she said there were man things her husband had not been told that would come out in the many investigations now under way.
``Those things will all come to light and that's what we're all praying for.''
Congressional hearings began in Washington last week into Enron's fall and the role of its auditor, Big Five accounting firm Andersen. Legislators are very interested in the destruction of thousands of documents related to Enron audits.
REALITY SET IN IT WAS OVER
Linda Lay broke down as she recalled a couple of days before Enron collapsed when her husband came home from work and said he could not turn the company around.
``He said he had tried everything he could think of and he could not stop it,'' she sobbed, adding: ``(He was) devastated, devastated for his employees.''
Asked how she felt toward those who said her husband betrayed them, she replied, ``We've lost everything but I don't feel Ken has betrayed me. I'm sad, I'm desperately sad but I don't know where to place the anger. I don't know who to get mad at. I just know my husband did not have an involvement.''
Like many of those affected by Enron's woes, Linda Lay said her own family was fighting for survival and that everything except their home was for sale.
``We are fighting for liquidity. We don't want to go bankrupt,'' she said, adding that nearly all of their fortune had been locked into Enron stock, which is now worthless.
According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Houston, Lay received $101 million in proceeds from the sale of Enron stock between October 1998 and November 2001.
The Enron saga took a tragic turn last Friday with the apparent suicide of J. Clifford Baxter, who had resigned as vice chairman of Enron Corp last year and who was said to have opposed the accounting practices of the company.
Mrs. Lay said her family was devastated by Baxter's death, adding that her husband had spoken to him not too long ago.
``Cliff was a wonderful man. It's a perfect example of how the media can play such havoc and destruction in people's lives. This is the ultimate. This is a loss of life.''
``It makes my heart, it makes Ken's heart ache,'' she added. ''Had we known we would have picked up the phone and called him. We would have gone and been with him. We would have done anything we could to have helped him, helped his family but we had no idea he was in that kind of pain.''
Lay came out of retirement last year to return to his old job as CEO. Asked how she would change her life, if given the chance, his wife said: ``Selfishly, probably that my husband never went back to Enron.'' |
