Video shows Enron employee asked if Lay was on crack
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A video broadcast on Wednesday of an Enron staff meeting, held as the former energy giant began to unravel, showed its former chief Kenneth Lay under fire from employees, one of whom demanded to know if he was on crack.
``I would like to know if you are on crack. If so that would explain a lot, if not you may want to start because it's going to be a long time before we trust you again,'' was one written comment Lay read out at the meeting, held on Oct. 23.
``I think that's probably not a very happy employee and that's understandable,'' Lay said in response.
Enron Corp -- once the world's largest energy trader and a Wall Street darling -- made the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history on Dec. 2. Damning allegations of insider trading and financial misdeeds evaporated investor confidence, threw thousands out of work and wiped out workers' retirement savings.
The staff meeting, aired on Wednesday on NBC's ``Today'' show, happened just days after Enron reported its first quarterly loss in over four years after taking charges of $1 billion on poorly performing businesses.
In the video Lay, who last week quit as Enron's chairman and chief executive officer, apologized to his workers and promised to get back money they lost when the company's share price plummeted.
``Let me say right up front, I am absolutely heartbroken about what's happened both over the last few months and more importantly the last several days,'' he told glum-faced employees.
``Many of you, who were a lot wealthier six to nine months ago, are now concerned about college education for your kids, maybe the mortgage on your house, maybe your retirement and for that I am incredibly sorry. But we're going to get it back.''
Earlier this week Lay's wife Linda said her family lost its fortune when Enron, the once-proud linchpin of the Houston economy and national energy market, collapsed.
``There's nothing left. Everything we had mostly was in the one stock... Other than the home we live in, everything else is for sale.. We are fighting for liquidity,'' she said.
But NBC said they had found at least 10 homes or lots, owned by the couple, that were not listed for sale and were worth about $10 million.
The network said Lay was entitled to a severance package of $25 million. And as of Jan. 1, the former-Enron chief owned more than $5 million in two companies -- with 340,724 shares in the No. 2 personal computer company Compaq and 20,220 in drugmaker Eli Lilly. |
