Enron's Lay: "Wall Street Journal" appeared to be on 'witch hunt'

[WhiteTara]

blame that VERY librul paper the WSJ. Oh, I'm going to love watching him go to prison. It will be so lovely.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2006-04-25-enron-tue_x.htm
HOUSTON — In his second day on the witness stand, former Enron CEO Ken Lay described to jurors Tuesday the tumultuous days of late October 2001, when a series of disclosures about transactions between his company and partnerships controlled by its CFO, Andrew Fastow, drove Enron's stock price down by about 10% per day.

Lay said the disclosures, in a series of articles in The Wall Street Journal, undermined investor confidence in the company, which he was convinced was in sound financial shape.

The government has accused Lay and another former Enron CEO, Jeff Skilling, of conspiring to hide the true state of Enron's financial condition from investors. But the two men maintain that the company was on sound financial footing in 2001, and that a campaign of negativity fueled by short sellers — people who bet a stock's price will fall —and the media, combined with the revelation that Fastow embezzled more than $30 million, caused the stock to plunge, forcing the company into bankruptcy.

Lay said that on Oct. 16, 2001, the company reported strong earnings from its core businesses, but decided to take a $1.2 billion write-down to clean up its balance sheet. The stock, he noted, rose 67 cents that day.
snip
Lay's attorney, Mac Secrest, showed several of the articles to the jury, but it's unclear whether the panel will agree with the defense arguments that the Journal was blowing various issues out of proportion. Each of the articles appeared to be accurate, and the ones that raised questions about Fastow's compensation understated how much money the CFO was making from the side deals with the company.

[Moderator]

1. Duplicate

Lay claims "witch hunt" brought Enron down