Lay, Skilling found guilty

AP:

Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a case born from one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

The verdict put the blame for the demise of what was once the nation's seventh-largest company squarely on its top two executives. It came in the sixth day of deliberations following a trial that lasted nearly four months.

Lay was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to banks in a separate trial related to his personal banking.

Lay was convicted on all six counts against him in the trial with Skilling. Skilling was convicted on 19 of the 28 counts against and acquitted on the remaining nine.

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The Democrats and the media who accused the President of being in cohoots with these guys should apologize. The case has been relentlessly prosecuted over the past five plus years and there has been zero evidence that the President was in anyway aware of what this company was doing much less sactioning it or participating. All those who suggested that Ken Lay could call the President and get bailed out have been proven wrong.