An Interesting Response Form Former Enron Employees

THE ENRON TRIAL
Former employees render a less-than-unanimous verdict
As trial nears, conflicted, varied views of Skilling and Lay emerge

By LYNN J. COOK and PURVA PATEL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Long before Garrett Ashmore ever went to work for Enron, he knew Ken Lay as the kindhearted CEO who gave a scholarship check for several thousand dollars to him as a teenager, changing his young life and setting in motion a career course that would bring him into the fold of the once high-flying company.

That's why Ashmore, who glorified and glamorized Enron and its head honchos for so long, is so torn as the trial of former Chairman Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling on fraud, conspiracy and other charges draws near.

Four years after the corporate implosion that wiped out the 401(k)s of Ashmore and thousands of other former Enron employees, the government takes its case to a jury starting Jan. 30.

Ashmore embodies the colliding and conflicting feelings about the company's downfall that some former Enron workers still grapple with. His emotions swing from vitriol and outrage to a latent hope that Lay may be able to prove his innocence.

"Disappointing does not do justice to how I feel," he said. "It's like your rich hero you've looked up to all these years ... the guy who changed your life and probably didn't even realize it ... could be responsible for taking away everything you ever had, too. It's been tough."

Some former employees harbor more sympathy for Lay, who was widely regarded as a fatherly figure in Enron's halcyon days, than for Skilling, the whip-smart and hard-charging Harvard MBA.

Tracey Michel spent six years in Enron's information-technology department and has always seen Lay as undeserving of the charges the federal government brought against him, though she adds that "might be naive."

"But if they do find them guilty, I hope they serve time," she said of both men.

One would think that these people would be much less charitable toward their former employers. Perhaps Ken Lay was just a dupe, but as it says in the full article, they don't make morons CEO's of Corporations, it just doesn't happen. These guys allowed themselves to stray way outside the bounds of acceptable conduct, and thousands of people suffered because of it. Members of my own family lost a limited but not insubstantial sum of money in their investment in Enron, though nothing like some of their former employees lost. It is surprising that some of those who lost their entire 401k by the mismanagement and deception by these characters are sympathetic to Lay and Skilling, or maybe not. We Americans have a hard time believing the worst about those we have come to have high regard for. Anyway, I am rooting for real justice to be done. I believe that if they're convicted, all of their assets should be seized, sold, and the receipt placed in a fund for the former employees or for all of those who lost money by investing in the corporation. It would be a small measure of justice.

Full Story: Judging Lay and Skilling

What do you think?

To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below