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Feds want Enron pair to pay up

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 1, 2006

HOUSTON - Federal prosecutors want Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling to fork over nearly $183-million in light of their convictions for perpetuating one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to order them to turn over that amount "in proceeds of the fraud conspiracy," which includes bonuses, Skilling's gains from stock sales, and Lay's use of loans from Enron to pay down much of his $100-million in personal debt.

"The bonuses, the stock transactions of Skilling and the manipulation of the line of credit by Lay all generated proceeds that would not have existed but for the fraud scheme," the filing said.

Specifically, the government wants $139.3-million from Skilling and $43.5-million from Lay.

Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling's lead lawyer, said Friday that the government was "grossly overreaching" in its high-dollar quest.

Lay, 64, and Skilling, 52, were convicted of defrauding investors and employees by repeatedly lying about Enron's financial strength in the months before the company plummeted into bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

Skilling was convicted of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors. Lay was convicted of six counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Both men plan to appeal. They are to be sentenced Oct. 23.

[Last modified June 30, 2006, 23:44:01]