Joe Nacchio has nothing on the late Ken Lay – at least when it comes to notoriety.
The criminal insider-trading trial of Nacchio, the former Qwest chief executive, has so far failed to attract throngs of protesters and the intense national media coverage that accompanied some other cases, such as the prosecution of former Enron executives Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.
Here are three reasons why:
“The country already got its pound of flesh,” said Kevin O’Brien, a business-ethics and law professor at the University of Denver. “The outrage has subsided – not so much locally – but it has nationally.”
Some of the national attention the trial has received is in part due to Nacchio’s defense strategy that he was pursuing secret government contracts while at Qwest that would have bolstered earnings.
“This case has some appeal nationally, but it has more to do with the novel defense,” said O’Brien.
Nacchio faces 42 counts of criminal insider trading. He has denied wrongdoing.
Two people interviewed Wednesday on the street in Denver reflect the intense interest of some – and the disinterest of others – in Nacchio’s fate.
“I do care,” said Brian Robertson, 45, of Evergreen, who works in the telecommunications industry but not for Qwest. “A lot of people have forgotten that it was people’s retirement funds” that were hammered when Qwest’s stock sunk as low as $1.11 in 2002, shortly after Nacchio was forced out at Qwest.
Carrie Sehl of Denver said she had never heard the name Nacchio. She was familiar with the trials of Lay and Martha Stewart.
“The media was oversaturated with those cases,” said Sehl, 32. “I heard more about Qwest trying to buy (MCI in 2005) than about this man,” meaning Nacchio.
At least 14 news organizations requested press credentials to attend the Nacchio trial, including national media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Reuters and National Public Radio.
By comparison, the 2006 trial of Lay and Skilling in Houston attracted national and international media attention, including coverage by outlets based in France, Germany and Norway, according to reports.
“The first couple of days, it was such a huge deal that the cops were unsure how to handle it,” recalled Loren Steffy, who covered the Enron trial for the Houston Chronicle. “At one point, the cops were using horses for crowd control.”
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
