Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Defense lawyers began trying to chip away at the prosecution's story Monday, the first day of the defense's case in the trial of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. The main testimony came from Joannie Williamson, a former assistant to ex-Enron Chairman Lay, ex-CEO Skilling and ex-head of investor relations Mark Koenig, who was on the witness stand for more than eight days for the prosecution. Williamson said yesterday that Koenig perjured himself when he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting securities fraud in August 2004.
"When I got to work that morning, I had a message on my voice mail and it was from Mark," she told Lay's lawyer Chip Lewis. Koenig's message said "he would be pleading guilty and that he appreciated our support."Williamson, a Spring woman, said, "I was shocked. I was stunned. I was hurt because Mark had always told me he had not done anything wrong."
She said Williamson called her later that same day.
"I asked him: 'Why did you plead guilty? You are not guilty.'
"'I know that, but in order for this to work, everyone needs to believe I am,'" she recalled his reply.
On the stand, Koenig told prosecutors he lied to investors about Enron's failing financial health. Williamson said she believes the government pressured Koenig into pleading guilty even though he wasn't, but she later admitted he never told her he was being pressured by anyone.
Also testifying Monday was Rogers Herndon, a former vice president and risk analyst in Enron's wholesale trading division, who said that moving retail division contracts to the wholesale division in 2001, a move prosecutors claimed was meant to hide about $200 million in retail losses, was done to create efficiencies. The move, he said, allowed the retail division "to do what it did best, which was sales; and wholesale to do what it did best, which was risk management." Diann Huddleson, another witness, talked about the million dollars in checks prosecution witness Wanda Curry said she found under an Enron energy trader's desk. Huddleson said she had been negotiating to get the checks from California utilities and was expecting them, though she couldn't explain why they were under a desk.
Sarah Davis, a former human relations employee at Enron, talked about the 12 "wonderful years" she spent with the company; she is expected to continue testifying today and may talk about the redeployment of Enron's Internet division employees.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)