The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

Lay turns to God and family after guilty verdict
Thu May 25, 2006

By Dan Whitcomb

HOUSTON (Reuters) - When the guilty verdicts came down, former Enron chief Ken Lay turned to God and family.

Lay, the son of a preacher who has long maintained his innocence to fraud and conspiracy charges in the energy giant's collapse, was convicted on Thursday along with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling of concealing the energy' giant's crumbling finances as it spiraled toward bankruptcy in 2001.

Before the jury arrived in the courtroom, the man once hailed by Wall Street as a business visionary shook hands with Skilling when the former Enron executive came into the chamber.

Lay then bowed his head, eyes closed, and appeared to pray as the eight-woman, four-man jury entered the courtroom to deliver the verdicts that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Lay, 64, slumped and shook his head, his sobbing wife Linda clutching his arm tightly, as U.S. District Judge Sim Lake read off the jury's decision.

Link