Or a bazillion bucks, in the Enron case.
You forgot about screwing the customers too.
Too bad Lay and Skilling couldn’t afford to hire decent lawyers to get them acquitted of these obvioulsy trumped charges.
No, no, the government went after Barry Bonds to take away coverage from the war. The media went after the Enron execs because of racism.
It’s just as plausible as your theory.
Jebus, you are so fucking stupid it is pathetic. That you’ve figured how to actually power on a computer and operate a keyboard is astonishing. Do the world a favor. Find an isolated cave in the Himalayas, and hold yourself out as some kind of prophet. Let all who wish to receive your wisdom come to you and exchange food and other gratuities.
June can’t come fast enough.
Where is Iraw, again?
Sorry typo. I meant Iraq.
Why do you hate the Himalayas? Why do you hate freedom?
I don’t know about you, but Iraw a little between my buttcheeks. Heat rash I guess.
Or 42.
snerk
This is some funny stuff, MBG. 
Yes, but the investigations and early indictments all happened before that. From
I venture to say that the reason Lay and Skilling weren’t indicted earlier is that the government was building up its case. Not some fantastical plot to distract from the Iraq War.
Dammit. That timeline is excerpted from MSN here.
Does the OP understand precisely what laws they were accused of breaking?
Can you, jebus, offer a brief outline of what the accused actually did, and why it’s not illegal?
Oh! Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering.
Daniel
I think it’s that awful pea green that the Highway Departments use to paint the bottoms of bridges.
Just sayin’…
Not a chance. If it was 42 then he’d at least have one answer correct.
Lawyerball… go!
If it’s of any help:
Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were accused generally of fraud.
This accusation arose because they actively created false accounting information that showed Enron to be in good financial straits when it was actually not. This is illegal: you cannot lie in your required accounting statements, especially if you then personally profit as a reesult of the lies.
It’s perfectly legal to speculate – “I think this company will turn things around!” or “I’m sure our stock will be worth ten times what it is now!” But it’s not legal to falsify the actual reports showing what the financial condition of the company is.
I saw The Smartest Guys in the Room. As I remember:
[ul]
[li]The books were definitely cooked. False reports, imaginary holding companies, etc.[/li][li]The person responsible for the cooking was Andy Fastow, the CFO of Enron, I believe.[/li][li]The question at hand regarding guilt was regarding how much Lay and Skilling knew about what Fastow was doing.[/li][/ul]
Either Lay and Skilling were remarkably hands-off in their management style (highly unlikely considering their success in the business world) or one or both were fully aware of Fastow’s doings. Fastow cooperated with the government in exchange for a lesser sentence, so it sounds as if they were able to make the case that they did indeed know what was going on.
And there is totally reasonable doubt about this. They were framed.