Posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - 11:21 am:

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Enron founder Ken Lay dies
64-year-old former energy executive was awaiting sentencing for fraud.
By Shaheen Pasha, CNNMoney.com staff writer
July 5 2006: 11:02 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Enron founder Kenneth Lay died early Wednesday in Aspen, Colo., a family spokeswoman said.

Lay, 64, was awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of conspiracy and fraud in the Enron trial in May.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said, "The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time."

CNN affiliate KPRC in Houston said Lay was admitted to the Aspen Valley Hospital overnight with a massive coronary.

(Watch what penalties Lay would have faced -- 1:54)

On May 25, Lay was found guilty of 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of Enron, the energy company he founded that eventually grew into the nation's seventh largest company before it imploded after an accounting scandal.

It was an astounding fall from grace for the Houston businessman who was once nicknamed "Kenny Boy" by President Bush. Lay had raised funds for Bush earlier in his political career.

In the Enron trial, Lay was accused of lying to investors and Wall Street about the health of Enron in late 2001 even as he enriched himself by selling millions of dollars in stock.

But Lay maintained his innocence to the end.

In a May 25 interview, Lay's lead attorney, Michael Ramsey, who was forced to take a backseat midway through the trial after he underwent vascular surgery, said that "Enron was his creation, he nursed it like a child, and the death of Enron was like the death of a child to him."

"He lost a fortune, his family lost a fortune, he can certainly feel the pain of the people that lost money in it, he will feel that till the day he dies," Ramsey said.

Lay was scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 23 along with Enron's former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, who was found guilty of conspiracy, fraud, making false statements and insider trading.

Both men faced 25 to 40 years behind bars, legal experts said.

Presiding Judge Sim Lake originally scheduled sentencing for Sept. 11.

Enron filed for bankruptcy in December 2001 after investigators found it had used partnerships to conceal more than $1 billion in debt and inflate profits. Enron's downfall cost 4,000 employees their jobs and many of them their life savings, and led to billions of dollars of losses for investors.

The collapse was the first of the high-profile corporate scandals that later rocked WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia and Tyco.

The wave of fraud led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation meant to tighten oversight of how American companies were audited.

Lay, the son of a baptist preacher in Missouri, worked his way up to become a corporate titan. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Missouri and went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Houston. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1971, during which he received the Navy Commendation Medal and National Defense Service Medal.

He is survived by his wife Linda Phillips Lay, five children and twelve grandchildren.

-- CNNMoney.com's Grace Wong contributed to this story.

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Posted on Thursday, July 6, 2006 - 12:31 am:

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Yea -- but only the rich guys Tom. The little guys -- they got knocked off and all their estates went to the Emperors. Unless they went home and uh, killed themselves -- then nothing happened. And their families -- their families were taken care of

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Posted on Thursday, July 6, 2006 - 9:09 am:

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There are different levels of evil, he wasn't Saddam Hussein to justify any level of glee.

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