Enron Died Without Honor

You’d think that everything about the whole Enron corporate failure had been said by now; it hasn’t. I read in this morning’s Houston Chronicle where the poor grieving widow of Ken Lay, “Linda Lay last month asked a judge to throw out the government's push to seize the assets, which include an upscale Houston condominium she shared with her husband”. ( linked via title bar )

Ken Lay died after he was convicted of looting Enron; unfortunately he died before the process of law had been taken to its conclusion, in effect making the conviction null and void. Ken Lay didn’t have a chance to use all the legal opportunities of appeals, never set foot in a prison because he died; he must be considered not guilty. All the money he stole through a maze of fraud and deceit must now be viewed in a much different light; he must have earned it, after all he died an honest man. Linda Lay, his partner in life, believes she should enjoy the fruits of the crime; her multimillion dollar condo and her life style are the result of Ken’s hard work and labors and had nothing to do with all that terrible insider bickering at Enron.

I watched an old movie yesterday the original “Airport”, maybe the first of the 70’s catastrophe movies. This is the movie that started a chain reaction, more airport disaster movies, high rise fires, earthquakes, volcanoes erupting and tornadoes. The original Airport movie had a mentally unstable out of work explosives expert at the end of his rope plotting to leave this world by blowing up an airplane he was traveling on so his wife could live off the traveler’s insurance she’d receive after the plane went down in the ocean. He does blow himself up in the lavatory taking out a section of the aircraft; but the plane is able to survive and land.

The wife of the deranged bomber understands the wide range of sorrow caused by her husband and begs forgiveness from the surviving passengers as they exit onto the concourse in various stages of exhaustion. There would not have been an insurance payoff because the husband blew himself up; regardless of that, the wife could not live with the knowledge that her husband had caused so much grief.

Linda Lay must not have seen that movie, she’s sitting in her 6 million dollar condo wondering when those horrid people will just leave her alone; after all Ken was an honorable man and every dollar he made was earned, that conviction was never finalized. If she had any honor, any integrity or character Linda Lay would have sold everything, dispersed the ill gotten gain to former Enron employees, those who lost their life savings and begged their forgiveness. The dishonesty and corrupt dealings of her late husband weren’t much different than blowing up a bomb on an airplane, the devastation to life, the misery and suffering; no, I think Linda Lay was a perfect match for Ken. I’m sorry, Linda, I forgot, Ken was never convicted, he was an honorable man, just like you.