Jurors deliberated for a second day on Thursday in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, who led the energy giant before its spectacular meltdown in 2001.
After more than three months of testimony from 55 witnesses, the government concluded its closing argument on Wednesday, squarely blaming them for the largest corporate meltdown in history.
The eight women and four men of the jury began deliberations that afternoon, and resumed discussions at 8am local time on Thursday. They have agreed to meet from 8am until 4:pm Mondays through to Thursdays.
Skilling (52) faces 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy. Lay (64) is charged with six, related to the period after he resumed chief-executive duties.
Lay also faces a separate bench trial on federal banking violations, which began on Thursday.
The Enron meltdown was triggered by revelations that the company had used questionable accounting and arcane financing vehicles to hide an estimated $40-billion in debt.
The case, one of the most complex corporate-crime trials in United States legal history, is a highest-profile test for the government’s crackdown on corporate crime.
Prosecutor Sean Berkowitz on Wednesday rebutted the defence team’s six hours of often-derisive closing arguments the day before.
The defence contended that key government witnesses were coerced to lie.
“Not a single person we put up there wasn’t corroborated by other documents or other testimony,” Berkowitz said.
Lay and Skilling not only say they are innocent, but claim that Enron was financially sound and brought down by unflattering news reports and a conspiracy of short-sellers.
“Every company has bad things written about them,” Berkowitz told the jurors. “But they don’t go bankrupt.”
Investors dumped Enron stock because “the truth was coming out”, he said. “Enron couldn’t handle the truth.”
The two defendants hired a team of high-priced lawyers and paid expert witnesses as much as $1-million to support their case.
Berkowitz concluded arguments by imploring jurors, “Do not let them buy their way out of their conduct. You can’t buy justice. You have to earn it.”
Enron’s 2001 collapse was the largest in a series of high-profile US corporate scandals that rocked the world, included WorldCom Inc, Tyco International, Adelphia Communications and Global Crossing.
Reporters from around the world have been camped out on the steps of the federal courthouse in Houston, Texas, with satellite trucks humming around the clock since the trial began in January. — AFP