A top lieutenant to Enron’s former chief financial officer will today plead guilty to criminal charges, sources close to the investigation in the US said.

The wife of former Enron chief Ken Lay is opening a second-hand shop selling family furniture and other personal items, it emerged today.

Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling will face questioning before Congress with other Enron officials whose versions of events conflict with his.

When Enron executive Sherron Watkins warned her chairman Kenneth Lay last summer that the company’s financial house of cards was set to collapse, she was nervous about her job security.

Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, who has been summoned to testify before the US Congress tomorrow, will assert his right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions, his spokeswoman has said.

Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay could testify at a US Senate hearing on Tuesday, a week after pulling out of two scheduled appearances when some in Congress suggested he had engaged in criminal activity.

New questions about accounting practices at Tyco and Enron provoked a broad selloff on Wall Street today as investors grew more doubtful about the honesty of corporate bookkeeping in general.

Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay pulled out of this week’s scheduled congressional testimony as members of Congress suggested he and other company executives engaged in widespread criminality.

Two members of Congress today said Enron could face prosecution after claiming the company manufactured income out of its off-the-books partnership deals that led to financial disaster.