Holy Freakin' Crap

[omorka]

Ken Lay dies of massive coronary.

1) That means he'll never receive his sentence. The guilty verdict will be the last thing in his legal record, with no sentencing, ever. I'm going to wonder for years what Judge Lake would have given him.

2) Jeff Skilling has gotta be feeling pretty damn abandoned right now . . .

Comments

[teegarden.livejournal.com]

Eh, he ain't dead. It's just a cover up. See, the Illuminati need him still for his "creative finances" genius, so they staged this set up at its most dramatic timing. All part of the World Plan, y'know (1).

(1) As revealed in various SJG supplements.

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

http://kenlaylives.blogspot.com/

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I have no sympathy for Skilling. The evidence at the trial was pretty clear: Skilling was the mastermind, mostly Lay just went along. Which doesn't make Lay any less culpable -- I'd have loved to see his white ass in a hard-core prison -- but it does mean that Skilling deserves anything that comes his way, now and forever.

[fynarra.livejournal.com]

He's in with DUH-B-YUH (Enron = huge campaign contributer to various Bushes).

Skilling will be out on Parole in a year.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

While I wouldn't rule out Dubya pardoning Skilling as a last-minute lame-duck action as he leaves office, I think it's unlikely (I would have expected him to do that for Lay), and I suspect Jeffrey will end up doing at least the equivalent of Ben Glisan's five-years-minus-good-behavior. Whether he ends up matching Fastow's ten is still up to Judge Lake and the parole board . . .

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Bethany McLean, one of the two co-authors of The Smartest Guys In The Room, sees Skilling as essentially a tragic figure; the fall of Enron crushed him mentally and emotionally far more than it did Lay, if only because Lay saw the company as his prize animal, or perhaps child, while Skilling was Enron - he identified completely with the company. Similarly, Cliff Baxter's suicide hit Skilling a lot harder than Lay; for Skilling, he was a friend and colleague, while to Lay he was a valued employee, but only an employee. In some ways, I sort of feel that Skilling is already being punished for his actions, that he's been suffering (deservedly so) since the day he stepped down, while Lay has largely escaped any particular responsibility or karmic payback. Without saying that Skilling doesn't deserve everything he's got coming - of course, I agree with you that he does - it just seems terribly unfair that he lives to see the piper paid, and Lay never gets fully held responsible.

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

Lay has largely escaped any particular responsibility or karmic payback

Aside from dying, you mean? It sounds like he might have lived another couple decades (minus prison time) in luxury if it weren't for this.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

That's kind of the point -- the "in luxury" part, at least, which would have been on the blood money he stole from hundreds of his employees. I wanted to see him reduced to the same level of poverty he brought down on so many. I wanted to see him in a REAL prison, not some white-collar Federal motel, so that he might come to understand that he was a criminal, essentially no different from any second-story man or con artist. Dying is getting off much too easy -- a few minutes of physical pain, and then he's home free.

[brezhnev.livejournal.com]

<Schadenfreude>
Ken Lay is dead-ay! That put a very bright spot into an otherwise dreary week.

So Skilling is sad, is he? Poor thing! I wonder how many millions he salted away, while thousands lost their jobs and retirement funds.
</Schadenfreude>

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

Better Ken Lay than Hayao Miyazaki.

[moontyger.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, this (http://community.livejournal.com/death_eyes/178212.html) was also totally my first thought when I heard.