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About Enron Scandal

In: Historical Events

Submitted By Shrutiram
Words 894
Pages 4
Two weeks into the trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, the defense's strategy so far has been clear: Undermine the credibility of the government's witness and barrage the jury with a deluge of complicated and, sometimes, mind-numbing corporate conference calls in an effort to show the defendants were unaware of any corporate chicanery at the company. Skilling gets 24 years
Lessons from Enron: Just say 'sorry'
Meet the players
It's a strategy that defense teams have widely used in the recent corporate trials ranging from HealthSouth (Research) to WorldCom with mixed results.
But with Enron -- the granddaddy of all cases of corporate malfeasance -- Lay and Skilling's dynamic duo of defense attorneys, Houston-based Michael Ramsey and Los Angeles-based Daniel Petrocelli, are taking their defense one step further. The attorneys contend that not only were the defendants unaware of any wrongdoing but, with the exception of a few bad apples, Enron never committed any fraud.
They blame negative publicity, courtesy of the former CFO Andrew Fastow's questionable side deals, and a lack of market confidence in the post-bubble environment for the company's implosion in December 2001 -- an event that sparked billions of dollars in losses for investors and paved the way for a slew of corporate scandals. A brilliant but risky defense "It's a tough thing to sell," he said. "If the prosecutors can prove the fraud occurred and the defense lawyer insists it didn't happen, you're in trouble right there. "
Parkman said HealthSouth's Scrushy was able to win an acquittal because the defense chose to admit to the jury that fraud had occurred at the company. By coming clean that wrongdoing had occurred, he said the defense was able to focus on proving that Scrushy was unaware that his executives had been misleading investors. It saved the

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