Houston – Ken Lay left jurors at the Enron trial with the same impression he made when he first took the witness stand more than a week ago: He was a true believer in his company, pained to the core by its infamous implosion.
Whether they believe him – in the face of several days of squabbling with a prosecutor over his decision to sell millions in Enron stock while telling employees he was a buyer – is another matter.
The Enron Corp. founder wrapped up six days of testimony in his federal fraud trial Tuesday, insisting it was not widespread fraud but other factors, most important a crooked chief financial officer, that sank the company.
The final question from his lawyer: “Did you love Enron?”
“I loved Enron very much,” Lay answered. “And I loved Enron’s employees very much. I spent half my professional life running Enron. I think we built a great company. We changed energy markets around the world.”
He concluded, “I think the most painful thing in my life was watching Enron finally have to go into bankruptcy.”
It was an echo of his testimony April 24, his first day on the witness stand, when the 64-year-old former chairman said the lost jobs and retirement savings caused by Enron’s failure hurt him more than the loss of a loved one.
Co-defendant and former chief executive Jeff Skilling sounded a similar note in his testimony last month.
Skilling described himself as passionately devoted to Enron and said he believed he left Enron strong in August 2001. He said “not in my wildest dreams” would he have believed Enron would be forced to file for bankruptcy protection in December 2001.
