[Darksyde has a great writeup on the Enron Verdicts:"Justice".]The "criminalization of conservatism" continuted today as George W. Bush's number one campaign contributor was found guilty today in the collapse of Enron, one of the greatest examples of corporate fraud and the largest Bankrupcy in American history.
Skilling was found guilty on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud, false statements and insider trading. He was found not guilty on eight counts of insider trading.Lay was found guilty on all six counts of conspiracy and fraud.
To get an idea of just how profoundly evil Enron became in the hands of Lay and Skilling, you I strongly recommend watching the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Read more below, if you have a strong stomach.
For example, Enron traders caused rolling brownouts and blackouts across California, in the middle of one of the hottest summers on record, driving prices throught he roof and costing the California economy billions. This was also instrumental in causing the recall of Governor Gray Davis and the subsquent election of one of the least loved Governors in the Country, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In sum, the corruption and cronyism that has choked American government since the millenium is embodied in the likes of Lay, Bush, and Skilling. Government of the Corporate interest, by the Corporate interest and for the Corporate interest must perish from this earth. Today's verdict is a step in the right direction. With Rove's indictment pending, Cheny now being investigated, Hastert implicated in the Abramoff scandal the list seems endless, but counting on the courts for redress is a fools game, especially with the courts now firmly stacked with the right-wing reactionary conservatives who have failed our nation so badly. We must organize and retake the legislative seats at every level of government if the likes of Lay, Bush, and Abramoff are to be removed from power.
Right-wing conservatism continues to fail America. How long can we allow it to continue to drag us all down, before Americans rise up and act?
The self-inflicted 2001 implosion of Ken Lay’s fraudulent paper tiger, Enron Corp., kicked off an extraordinary season of corporate scandals featuring a dizzying number of Bush Pioneers…who still walk the streets. The $550,025 that Ken Lay’s Enron Corp. gave Bush by mid 1999 made it his No. 1 career patron, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Lay, whom George W. Bush affectionately called “Kenny Boy,†became a master electrical power broker by mastering political power trading. “Virtually every … aspect of Enron’s operations is overseen by the federal government,†the Dallas Morning News noted in 1996. Enron even had software, dubbed “the matrix,†that estimated how much a particular regulatory change would cost. A tax dodger that received more than $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies, Enron was a huge political donor that kept a stable of ex-government officials on retainer (see Rob Mosbacher and William SchubertD. Stephen Goddard); law firm Vinson & Elkins (see Thomas Marinis); and investment firms too numerous to mention. Several Enron officials have pled guilty or been indicted for accounting fraud and manipulating California’s electricity market but its top officials remain at large. Despite a doctorate in economics, Lay has argued that he did not grasp the complex financial deals that Enron used to book huge profits--and cover up staggering losses. A report by Enron’s bankruptcy court examiner in late 2003 concluded that he and CEO Jeff Skilling “breached their fiduciary duties†because they “knew or should have known†Enron was cooking the books. The report said Lay could owe Enron’s creditors $94 million for repaying company loans with company stock.
Lovely, eh?