Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay pulled out of today’s scheduled congressional testimony on Sunday as members of Congress suggested he and other company executives engaged in widespread criminality.
Enron’s chairman "cannot be expected to participate in a proceeding in which conclusions have been reached before Mr. Lay has been given an opportunity to be heard," his attorney, Earl Silbert, said in letters to the Senate and House panels that were to hear from him.
The Senate Commerce Committee canceled its hearing after Lay pulled out, while the House Financial Services Committee planned to proceed, minus the former Enron chairman.
Lay’s decision came the day after a review of Enron’s activities by University of Texas law school dean William Powers concluded that the company’s management concealed financial information from the public.
Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., said on NBC’s "Today" that "Ken Lay obviously had to know that this was a giant pyramid scheme — a giant shell game."
Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., asked whether "maybe somebody ought to go to the pokey for this."
"I think we are going to find out yes to that question," Tauzin said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called Enron "almost a culture of corporate corruption" and said the Powers report is "a pretty devastating indictment of things that went on inside the corporation. The report would suggest that as CEO, Mr. Lay certainly was aware of much of this."
"We’re going to meet with the committee members and have a discussion about what we do next," Dorgan said Sunday night. Dorgan dismissed Silbert’s suggestion that the hearing would be "prosecutorial" in tone, saying that the comments by members of Congress simply reflect assessments "by Enron’s own accounting firm regarding potentially illegal acts."
"It was clear to us that he was looking for any little excuse to wiggle off the hook," said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which had planned to invite Lay to testify later this month. "As the old saying goes, ‘you can run but you can’t hide’ " and if Lay refuses to testify, "he’ll be subpoenaed like everyone else."
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