05.25.06
Guilty
Former Enron bigwigs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling have just been found guilty of, among other things, terminal stupidity in not fleeing to Argentina when they had the chance. Now, they will probably spend the rest of their lives in Federal PMITA Prison. I don’t feel sorry for them.
Seriously though, did they actually think they would be able to beat this? They won’t be able to pull a Martha Stewart and come out even stronger. Thousands of people lost their pensions and life savings. (Diversify. Diversify.)
The long term ramifications should be interesting. Since Enron’s collapse, new laws have been passed that increase accounting transparency in publicly held companies. This trial definitely sends the message that high level executives will be held accountable for book-keeping fraud. I suppose it’s a responsibility that goes with those huge salaries.
Ultimately, I suspect, these changes will make the end result of this mess a positive. The more investors know about a company’s books, the better decisions they can make. In a way, the Enron debacle made the market a little more efficient.
