E-literate Enron Executives
It has occurred to me that for two guys who spent a lot of money and time on trying to trade broadband capacity, and speaking to investors about the business in soaring, technical terms, both Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay were Luddites when it came to the Internet.
During his testimony, Skilling admitted to being a "late adopter" to computers and e-mail. (Reminds me of an old comedy routine: "I don't even own a television machine.")
Just now, when asked about e-mail, Lay testified: "I receive 'em. I don't send 'em."
Even former general counsel James Derrick, who testified before Skilling, said that if he received an e-mail, his secretary might print it out and give it to him, or "chuckle" and throw it away. You may consider that a corruption of the clerical arts, but it also provided Derrick--and, presumably, Skilling and Lay, as prosecutors have failed to turn up "smoking gun" e-mails--plausible deniability.
By Frank Ahrens |
April 24, 2006; 12:47 PM ET
| Category:
Sidebars
Previous: Hang On There, Podner |
Next: The Men of Enron: Skilling
Posted by: SteelWheel | April 24, 2006 07:27 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
It is amazing to me to hear Kenneth Lay testify on how concern he was about his employee's 401k and that some of his employees were getting bit "arrogant". The more he tries to convince that he had other people's interest at heart the more I believe he is guilty as hell. The culture of Enron didn't just happen and no way in hell is he going to convince me that he was that aloof about the people or the culture!