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Ex-Enron Chair Lay to Give Papers to SEC

Posted on: Friday, 7 November 2003, 06:00 CST

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay agreed Friday to turn over documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating the bankrupt Houston energy company he headed.

Lay had resisted giving up the documents for more than a year, contending that surrendering them would violate his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Under an agreement reached between the SEC and Lay and approved by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, the SEC can use any leads derived from the documents for any law enforcement purpose, including any future criminal or civil action it may bring against Lay.

The documents include Lay's corporate and personal records.

SEC officials had argued there was no constitutional protection for the corporate records and said they must be turned over even if they might incriminate Lay personally.

Lay is required to turn over the records early next week.

The SEC does not plan to make any of the records available to the public because they are part of on ongoing investigation, SEC attorney Luis Mejia said Friday.

The SEC has said in court records that the documents include copies of Enron memoranda and other documents that included Lay's handwriting as well as copies of letters, position papers and drafts of speeches.

Attorneys for Lay did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Enron spiraled into bankruptcy in late 2001, the first of a wave of corporate accounting scandals that engulfed not only Enron but such other big corporate names as WorldCom, Global Crossing and Adelphia Communications.

While the government has not filed criminal charges against Lay, the former chairman, or Jeffrey Skilling, the company's former chief executive, the two were named in a civil lawsuit filed in June against Enron and several former executives and directors.

The civil suit filed by the Labor Department seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in retirement money that Enron employees lost when the company went into bankruptcy.

The highest-ranking Enron executive charged to date is former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, who faces close to 100 criminal charges including fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Fastow has pleaded innocent and is free on $5 million bond as he awaits trial next April.

In August, Michael Kopper, managing director under Fastow of Enron Global Finance, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in what one called a substantial breakthrough in the investigation.

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