Houston – Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay launched an impassioned plea for former employees of the bankrupt energy company to defy a “wave of terror” by federal prosecutors and help him battle criminal charges.
“It will only take a few brave individuals who are willing to stand up and say, ‘It’s time for the truth to come out,”‘ Lay told the Houston Forum on Tuesday, a month before he faces trial on fraud and conspiracy counts.
Lay reiterated in a speech before about 500 business and academic leaders his insistence that he committed no crimes related to Enron’s 2001 crash. He accused the government of bullying potential witnesses who could help him.
“Truth is a great rock,” he said. “Whether it will continue to be submerged by a wave – a wave of terror by the Enron Task Force – will be determined by former Enron employees.”
Lay and his co-defendants – former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and former top accountant Richard Causey – have repeatedly alleged that critical witnesses are afraid to talk to them because prosecutors intimidate them with possible indictments or harsh sentences for those who have already pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors have repeatedly denied intimidating anyone.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake will preside over the trial, set for Jan. 17. He said earlier this month that the defense failed to show any prosecutorial misconduct.
But Lay, in his speech, said: “In this trial, apparently unlike most criminal defense cases, defendants are trying to get the truth in, and the prosecutors – the Enron Task Force – are trying to keep it out,” he said.
Prosecutors declined to respond to Lay’s comments.
