In the event you haven't heard, Ken Lay passed away today. While Mr. Lay's charitable contributions were widely noted, and he was a pillar of Houston area arts organizations, he was also the central figure in the Enron and Arthur Andersen collapses.
It's a shame that he didn't get a chance to pay his debt to society or appeal his conviction (which I personally believe would have been as useful as OJ's search for the 'real killers'). Seeing him in an orange jumpsuit would do much to provide closure to those retirees whose pensions and 401k accounts are gone due to the AA and Enron collapses.
There are no winners here - Mr. Lay's family loses its patriarch, children lose a grandfather, and the media loses its poster child for the corporate excesses of the 1990's. Please join me in praying for all of the victims of this modern day Greek tragedy - I think we all wanted to close up the Enron scandal with folks going to jail, etc., and I'm sure Mr. Lay's family wanted a chance to appeal the convictions in both federal court as well as the court of public opinion. It's a shame that this couldn't play itself out before his demise - many battles won't be fought now, and I don't know that anyone is going to get closure on this.
Comments