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Ken Lay burst into his first day of cross-examination yesterday, angrily denying that he had tried to influence witnesses and implying that prosecutor John Hueston was one of the people Lay accused of carrying out a "character assassination" against him. Lay, the former Enron chairman, has been on the witness stand in his and ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's trial all week; Wednesday was the first of as many as three days he'll spend being questioned by government prosecutors.
Hueston accused Lay of continuing to contact witnesses "to get [his] story straight." Though Lay said he most definitely had not tried to influence any witnesses, he told jurors, "I don't know if I've contacted witnesses." Under questioning from Hueston, Lay did admit he tried to call two Goldman Sachs executives after he disagreed with former Enron CFO Andy Fastow's testimony about Enron's involvement with the company in late 2001, but Lay said he made the calls to check his own memory. Hueston said Lay left messages for one Goldman Sachs execm which prompted Goldman attorneys to call Lay's lawyers and ask that he stop doing so. Nevertheless, Lay said he continued trying to contact another Goldman employee. He also admitted to trying to contact ex-Enron risk guru Vince Kaminski shortly before Kaminski took the stand, but Lay said he didn't know Kaminski was a government witness. "I was trying to reconnect with Vince and talk to him about some issues I wanted to talk to him about," Lay said. Hueston accused Lay of trying to talk to potential witnesses to tell them "his version of the story," but Lay shot back, "I don't have a story." (Another witness, Joannie Williamson, testified that Lay tried to get her to contact witness Mark Koenig, but it's not clear if that came up Wednesday.)
In other questioning, Hueston asked Lay whether Lay had been part of character assassination in the Enron trial:
"Are you considering yourself in that league?" Lay asked, implying Hueston was the character assassin."I am a U.S. Attorney, this is my job. You can call me anything you want," Hueston said.
Hueston asked Lay if he remembered standing next to his lawyer, Michael Ramsey, when Ramsey called former Enron treasurer and prosecution witness Ben Glisan Jr. a "monkey." Lay said he didn't remember that and later explained, "I can't take full responsibility for what my lawyers say and do." He also said he didn't remember the time he left the courtroom March 22 and told two reporters that Glisan had lied during his testimony. Also on the list of thing that had slipped Lay's mind was whether he signed Enron's Code of Ethics as was required of all Enron employees each year. Lay agreed that he "tried to live by the Code of Ethics," but he said he was "just not sure" if he signed it.
The line of questioning revisted Photofete, the online photo-sharing company owned by an ex-girlfriend of Skilling's. Lay made a $60,000 personal investment and a $60,000 commitment to the company, which had $450,000 in contracts with Enron, and Hueston asked whether that was ethical.
"I don't know. Did you check on that?" Lay shot back at Hueston. "You guys are pretty thorough." Lay did not get a laugh.
During Skilling's cross-examination, prosecutor Sean Berkowitz brought out the fact that Skilling had invested three times more in Photofete than he had testified earlier in the trial and that the company did $450,000 in business with Enron, far more than the $3,000 in contracts Skilling told SEC investigators Photofete had with Enron. Skilling's lawyers are trying to get all the testimony about Photofete struck from the record.
Lay's cross-examination is expected to continue all day today and will probably resume Monday morning.
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