Look at this:
ENRON'S KEN LAY DIES: 'HIS HEART SIMPLY GAVE OUT' July 5 2006
Staff and wire reports
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Convicted Enron Corp. founder Ken Lay, who was found guilty of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history, has died of a massive coronary. He was 64.
Nicknamed "Kenny Boy'' by President Bush, Lay led Enron's meteoric rise from a staid natural gas pipeline company formed by a 1985 merger to an energy and trading conglomerate that reached No. 7 on the Fortune 500 in 2000 and claimed $101 billion in annual revenues.
He was convicted May 25 along with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling of defrauding investors and employees by repeatedly lying about Enron's financial strength in the months before the company plummeted into bankruptcy protection in December 2001. Lay was also convicted in a separate non-jury trial of bank fraud and making false statements to banks, charges related to his personal finances. He was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 23.
Lay had built Enron into a high-profile, widely admired company, the seventh-largest publicly traded in the country. But Enron collapsed after it was revealed the company's finances were based on a web of fraudulent partnerships and schemes, not the profits that it reported to investors and the public.
When Lay and Skilling went on trial in U.S. District Court Jan. 30, it had been expected that Lay, who enjoyed great popularity throughout Houston as chairman of the energy company, might be able to charm the jury. But during his testimony, Lay ended up coming across as irritable and combative.
He also sounded arrogant, defending his extravagant lifestyle, including a $200,000 yacht for wife Linda's birthday party, despite $100 million in personal debt and saying "it was difficult to turn off that lifestyle like a spigot.''
Both he and Skilling maintained that there had been no wrongdoing at Enron, and that the company had been brought down by negative publicity that undermined investors' confidence.
His defense didn't help his case with jurors.
"I wanted very badly to believe what they were saying,'' juror Wendy Vaughan said after the verdicts were announced. "There were places in the testimony I felt their character was questionable.''
Pastor Steve Wende of First United Methodist Church of Houston, said in a statement that church member Lay died unexpectedly of a "massive coronary.''
Wende said Lay and his wife, Linda, were in Aspen, Colo., for the week "and his death was totally unexpected. Apparently, his heart simply gave out.''
The Lays owned property in Colorado, the only state outside the Southern District of Texas, which includes Houston, where he was allowed to go before that sentencing.
His attorney during the trial, Mike Ramsey, said today that Lay's wife, Linda, was with him when he died. Ramsey's own heart problems forced him to miss much of the trial.
Pat Worcester, executive assistant to CEO at Aspen Valley Hospital, said Lay was admitted into the emergency room at 3:10 a.m. this morning. She said the hospital would release a statement later.
Skilling told The Associated Press that he was aware of Lay's death, but declined further comment.
Born April 15, 1942, in Tyrone, Mo., Lay grew up as the son of a Baptist minister who also sold farm equipment and worked at a feed store.
In high school in Rush Hill, Mo., just outside Columbia, Lay was a top student, sophomore class president, bass singer in the madrigal choir and slide trombone player in the marching band.
While attending the University of Missouri, Lay became interested in Wall Street, monetary policy and international trade.
Earning a master's degree in economics in 1965, Lay accepted a senior analyst job at Humble Oil in Houston, though he knew nothing about energy or the Gulf Coast. There, and later at Exxon, Lay was an economist in corporate planning.
"I spent a lot of time on a tractor and had a lot of time to think," Lay told the Chronicle in 1991. "I must confess, I was enamored with business and industry. It was so different from the world in which I was living."
At Hickman High School in Columbia, Mo., Lay accomplished quite a bit for a new kid on the block, said Charley Blackmore, who graduated from Hickman with Lay's sister, Sharon, three years behind Ken.
Blackmore, on his alumni Web site, kewpie.net, named for the school mascot, noted that Lay participated in band and several singing groups, was elected to the National Honor Society, named homecoming chairman and received the American history award. He graduated 10th in a class of 276.
At the University of Missouri, Lay joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, known for attracting scholars and intramural athletes. He became president as a junior, which was unusual.
In college, Lay formed the ideals and principles he would use to achieve the wealth and power he dreamed of. "He took every course I taught," said Pinkney Walker, a former professor of economics. "He understood that an unregulated market with free choice, where market forces can work, will create greater incentives and maximize the well-being of many."
Lays upbringing ingrained in him a drive to rise above his beginnings, Walker said, but it was his brilliance that made him stand out.
After Lay received his bachelor's degree, Walker asked what he planned to do next. "He told me, `I've got to get out of here and make some money,' " Walker said.
Walker persuaded him to stay on and earn a master's degree, finagling enough of a salary to make him a teaching assistant. When he earned the master's, Walker asked his plans again: "Again he told me, `I've got to get out and make money.' "
Lay took a job in Houston in 1965 as a senior economist at Humble Oil, a company of international reach with ties to government and lots of promise. |
