Nbadan
10-17-2006, 05:44 PM
A federal judge in Houston this afternoon wiped away the fraud and conspiracy conviction of Kenneth L. Lay, the Enron Corp. founder who died of heart disease in July, bowing to decades of legal precedent but frustrating government attempts to seize nearly $44 million from his estate.
The ruling worried employees and investors who lost billions of dollars when the Houston energy trading company filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001. It also came weeks after Congress recessed for the November elections without acting on a last-ditch Justice Department proposal that would have changed the law to allow prosecutors to seize millions in investments and other assets that Lay controlled.
With the judge's order, Lay's conviction on 10 criminal charges will be erased from the record. "The indictment against Kenneth L. Lay is dismissed," U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III wrote in a spare, 13-page order.
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700808.html)
I guess it's now up to employees and investors to civil sue his estate and heirs for there to be any logistical justice to this injustice. Yet, it would appear there is one structural difference between OJ and Lay, OJ had a legal record of his criminal innocence, whereas Lay has no record of anything, for it now has been erased.
Yet we are reminded regularly by the people who are convinced OJ was guilty even as he was found 'not guilty', yet will we continue to hear vile regarding Lay?
The ruling worried employees and investors who lost billions of dollars when the Houston energy trading company filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001. It also came weeks after Congress recessed for the November elections without acting on a last-ditch Justice Department proposal that would have changed the law to allow prosecutors to seize millions in investments and other assets that Lay controlled.
With the judge's order, Lay's conviction on 10 criminal charges will be erased from the record. "The indictment against Kenneth L. Lay is dismissed," U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III wrote in a spare, 13-page order.
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700808.html)
I guess it's now up to employees and investors to civil sue his estate and heirs for there to be any logistical justice to this injustice. Yet, it would appear there is one structural difference between OJ and Lay, OJ had a legal record of his criminal innocence, whereas Lay has no record of anything, for it now has been erased.
Yet we are reminded regularly by the people who are convinced OJ was guilty even as he was found 'not guilty', yet will we continue to hear vile regarding Lay?