Update on Ken Lay's death

[Xenocrates]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060707.IBENRON07/TPStory/Business

Well this is a surprise to me.

Apparently:

Mr. Skilling's legal team will almost certainly invoke Mr. Lay's demise to try to reverse his own fraud and conspiracy conviction or demand a retrial, legal experts said yesterday.

Federal prosecutors may be stymied in their bid to seize Mr. Lay's assets. A recent appeals court ruling in the U.S. Fifth Circuit, where Mr. Skilling and Mr. Lay were tried, determined that when a defendant dies before he has exhausted all his appeals "everything associated with the case is extinguished, leaving the defendant as if he had never been indicted or convicted."

And in another bizarre twist, Mr. Lay's death is likely to shield his wife, Linda, and the couple's children from a federal forfeiture of his assets.

But legal experts said the Lay family could still face efforts to seize those assets by plaintiffs in several civil suits, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, former Enron employees and Enron shareholders.

But at least one plaintiff in an Enron class-action suit said this week it would not pursue Mr. Lay's estate. A spokesman for the Regents of the University of California said this week they would not pursue "what's left."

In some ways this reminds me of the case of Dr Harold Shipman, who killed around 250 of his patients. He committed suicide in prison so that his wife could keep the NHS pension. I wonder if Lay found a way to induce a heart attack on himself?

 

[GoldEagle]

In some ways this reminds me of the case of Dr Harold Shipman, who killed around 250 of his patients. He committed suicide in prison so that his wife could keep the NHS pension. I wonder if Lay found a way to induce a heart attack on himself?

Doubt it. I'm sure the stress was just killing him.

 

[Esckey]

Makes me wonder if he had enough money after all the trials to fake his own death

 

[Birdjaguar]

Did he have a quick cremation? Check the bank account of the doctor who signed the death certificate. Check the Mexican border crossing.

 

[Taliesin]

Check his wife's medicine cabinet for digitalis... (Or their garden for foxglove.)

 

[sysyphus]

Makes me wonder if he had enough money after all the trials to fake his own death

Corruption is very profitable, that's why they do it.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

So... he went off his heart meds so his wife and kids could keep his ill-gotten millions?

It's like Death of a Salesman updated for the new, Republican era!