Prosecutors seek $183M from Lay, Skilling

Federal prosecutors aren't finished with Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's assets yet: They filed a motion Friday asking for $183 million from the pair of former Enron executives — money prosecutors say came from fraud Lay and Skilling committed while they led Enron. The sum includes $140 million in stock sales, compensation and bonuses from Skilling and $43 million from a bonus and use of a company credit line from Lay. The motion says Lay and Skilling "were able to sell Enron stock and reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits, all while knowingly misrepresenting Enron's true financial condition to the public."

Skilling asked last month for access to $60 million in frozen assets so he could pay his legal bills. If Friday's motion is approved, Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said Skilling will be left without financial support, placing him in an unfair position — oddly similar to the thousands of Enron employees whose finances were wiped out when the company collapsed, isn't it? As for Lay, he said during his trial that his net worth had fallen from a high of $400 million to $250,000 in the hole, but prosecutors say that didn't include a $6.3 million investment Lay owns that's available to him this month. Lay's attorney, Michael Ramsey, said Lay didn't mention that few million because "it had nothing to do with the case."

Scattered millions like that are part of the reason the government is seeking such a large amount from Lay and Skilling: The amount will cover any assets prosecutors may discover in the future, Houston attorney Joel Androphy told the Chronicle. "With a money judgment they could do it," Androphy said. "Without a money judgment, they have no mechanism to seize the property." Prosecutors didn't comment on the motion.