Former Enron boss remains confident as jurors deliberate

FORMER Enron boss Kenneth Lay awaits the outcome of two criminal cases.

As jurors were to return yesterday for a fifth day deliberating the fraud and conspiracy trial of the Enron founder and his codefendant, former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, US District Court Judge Sim Lake was considering evidence against Lay after a three-day trial where Lay was accused of bank fraud.

“We’re very confident about the outcome,” Lay said outside the federal courthouse Tuesday after final arguments in the trial where he’s charged with one count of bank fraud and three of making false statements on bank documents.

Lake, who heard the bank fraud case without a jury, has said he won’t announce his verdict until the eight-woman, four-man panel in the main case delivers its decision.

Jurors received that case last week and have deliberated for about 24 hours over four days. Jurors have said they’ll deliberate Monday through Thursday, keeping roughly the same schedule they had during the nearly four months of testimony.

The conspiracy case was the government’s premier trial to emerge from its probe of Enron’s spiral into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001 in one of the largest corporate scandals in US history.

Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors and a maximum of 275 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy with a combined maximum punishment of 45 years. Both are accused of repeatedly lying when they told investors and employees Enron was vital when they knew accounting trickery hid losses and flailing ventures. The defendants deny wrongdoing and blame negative publicity and lost market confidence for Enron’s failure.