A reminder of the dangers of putting wealthy business leaders in charge of government

Photo: FBI

For those of you who think big business leaders are automatically qualified to run government or head it’s important agencies, here is a picture of the Enron Code of Ethics, signed by the Company’s former Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay. The foreword in the Code states that Enron “enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty… but no matter [what]… Enron’s reputation… depends on its people, on you and me.”

Remember Enron?

Ken Lay’s mugshot after his arrest in 2004 (Photo: Wikipedia)

Enron, a giant energy company based in Houston, used creative accounting to hide billions of dollars in debt caused by the company’s failed deals and projects. Enron’s CEO, chief financial officer and other company executives misled the company’s board of directors and audit committee about the high-risk accounting practices they were using, and pressured their accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, to ignore the problems.

Enron filed for bankruptcy and its $63.4 billion in assets made it the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time. Employees and stockholders lost billions in pensions and stock investments.

Lay was arrested in 2004 and in May of 2006 was convicted of six counts of business fraud and conspiracy and four counts of bank fraud in the collapse of Enron. (By contrast, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 counts of business fraud.)

Like Trump, Lay always denied engaging in any wrongdoing.

On the steps of the Houston courthouse after the verdict against him was read, Lay invoked religion, saying:

“We believe that God in fact is in control, and indeed he does work all those things for good for those who love the Lord.”

Lay died of a heart attack in July of 2006 at his home in Aspen, Colorado at the age of 64 while free on $5 million bond awaiting his sentencing, which was scheduled for the fall of 2006. Each count against him carried a maximum sentence of 5-10 years, so he faced spending the rest of his life in prison.

Trump is a convicted criminal who perpetrated fraud upon American voters prior to an election to hide a sexual dalliance he engaged in with a porn star behind his wife’s back, shortly after the birth of his son, Barron. He was also charged with mishandling national security documents and attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Since 1976, his businesses have been involved in 4,095 lawsuits in U.S. federal and state courts, including over 1,000 battles involving his casinos, 63 cases involving his golf clubs, million-dollar real estate lawsuits, employment lawsuits for non-payment of wages, personal defamation lawsuits, 208 contract dispute cases, 85 branding and trademark cases and more than 100 business tax disputes. He has also been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault, and on one accusation a jury ruled he was civilly liable for sexual assault. One of the sexual abuse cases against him involved a 13 year old child.

This is the best and brightest person Republicans have selected to run our country.

All I can say is,

Elect a criminal, expect crimes.

A symbol of success or crime? The Enron building — the corrupt energy company’s former corporate headquarters in Houston, TX (Photo: Wikipedia)

 

  9 comments for “A reminder of the dangers of putting wealthy business leaders in charge of government

  1. I remember the day the scandal at Enron broke
    with all the Enron employees saying “I didnt know!” I was so naive at the time that I was shocked.
    Surprisingly, Lay was convicted, which isn’t ever a certianty.

    In 2008, only one low-level person was punished and lots of people got bailed out (for the good of the country) during the “financial crisis”.
    I listened to all of the congressional hearings
    which had the purported purpose of identifying the culprits ..and slowly it dawned on me that no one was going to really pay.

    Bernie Madoff got away with his scheme until one obscure accountant looked at one of Madoff’s client’s portfolio and saw it was a ponzy scheme. He went to the SEC with proof and it took many years for them to investigate.

    Corruption is nothing new and surely you know this. Apparently you think that Trump and his crew are exceptionally and uniquely corrupt, while I think Biden, Obama and Clinton are far worse.
    Entire sections in libraries are dedicated to exposing the corruption which exists in politics.
    Maybe the last line of your post should be:
    “Elect a human, expect crimes”

    • “while I think Biden, Obama and Clinton are far worse.”

      The problem is that neither you, nor any of the GOP, have been able to come up with any actual evidence of “worse”. All you have are accusations and claims.

      On the other hand, we have 91 indictments in four separate cases, example after example of corruption from Trump and his cronies. Did Biden, Obama or Clinton use their own golf courses and make the Secret Service pay market rates for facilities? Money that ultimately went to himself? Did Saudi Arabia pay Biden, Obama or Clinton’s child two billion dollars?

      Facer it, harry. You’ve got blinders on. Everyone here can see it except you.

      • Everyone here? You mean all ten of the people who read this blog?

        I don’t think I have blinders on…but that’s one of the characteristics of wearing them.

        In my comment I alluded to the fact that no one with power in this country gets punished. Look at all the resources that were aligned against Trump and all you got was a lousy mugshot on millions of dollars of merch…and Anne’s billboard.

        James Comer will be going after the Bidens in the coming months but nothing will come of it. There have been many investigations which pointed to corruption on the part of all the people I mentioned and nothing came of those either.

        I’m not sure why we do all this fingerpointing.I guess it’s because we yearn for a justice that never seems to come. I am here strictly to point out there are two sides to every story Anne tries to tell and if you don’t see that it is you who has blinders on.

        • Hang in there,Badhat. don’t give up. I like both sides of the argument … especially when people get overly butthurt.

        • You’re here to spew Trump propaganda while pretending you’re not one of his avid followers. And, casting aspersions on a blog that you use for venting sentiments you don’t dare vent in public is rather like telling the only woman who’d go out with you that you’re way out of her league. But, it’s clear healthy interpersonal dynamics are not familiar to you.

        • Consider the possibility that nothing came of the investigations against those people because there was nothing to charge them with. I know you need to believe they are all as bad as your guy, but that’s not always true.

          And I am well aware that there are two sides to every story. I am also aware that your side is almost always wrong. You swallow every lie they tell without question, and spew them back here. I know why they’re wrong, and you don’t care to learn. You’ve proven that time after time.

          • Our “justice” system depends on who is in charge. Alvin Bragg and Leticia James went after Trump. They even changed some statutes of limitations to go after him. Merrick Garland allowed and encouraged this…but in the end it amounted to nothing except for people like you and Anne to be able to call him a convicted felon.

            A huge number of Americans saw what happened and rejected the story that was being peddled. It sure didn’t turn out the way you envisioned.

            Speaking of actual crimes that really affect people…the Biden administration allowed over ten million illegal and unvetted migrants into our country. It’s going to cost billions to right this ship…but you and your clan are obsessed over Trump’s bookkeeping.

            It’s obvious I’m not uninformed…you just don’t agree with me. You don’t see the tragedy that our legal system has become a weapon.

            • Trump was charged by grand juries that agreed the evidence presented showed he committed the crimes. He was then tried and convicted by a jury of his peers. You can whine about Alvin Bragg and Leticia James all you want, but the fact is that they are just a small part of the process that led to his convictions, and probably would to more if the process had been allowed to play out.

              And Biden didn’t “allow ten million illegal and unvetted (im)migrants into our country”. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants entered the country legally, and overstayed their visas. The flood of millions of people sneaking across the border is a fiction that you have swallowed uncritically. It didn’t happen.

              You are uninformed. You only accept information that agrees with your preconceptions, such as the millions of immigrants lie. You’ve been lied to and you have swallowed it for so long that you can’t admit the possibility that you’ve been fooled. You have to be right, because no other possibility exists. You simply can’t accept being wrong.

  2. Ken Lay was a grifter, playing a shell game. The former and current president, on the other hand, is a first-time offender with a scores of years long history of public service, honesty, perfidy, social consciousness, moral turpitude, constructiveness, libertinism, and, oh yes, dissipation. Did I miss squalor, filth and rot? Let’s forgive and forget, and all join together and pray, against all odds, for his resurrection.

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