Kenneth Lay, 64, the long-time chairman and CEO of Enron, who was found guilty by a Houston jury in May of fraud and conspiracy charges, was pronounced dead at 3:11 am MDT July 5 at the Aspen Valley Hospital, in Aspen, Colorado. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to Kelly Kimberly, a spokeswoman for Lay and his family. A coroner's autopsy is pending.
Lay was vacationing at his home in Aspen with his wife Linda. He was due to be sentenced October 23 by a US District Court judge in Houston following the nearly four-month trial which resulted in his being found guilty of 10 charges, six of which involved the collapse of the once high-flying energy trading firm he helped build.
Jeffrey Skilling, a protege of Lay, and for a six-month period the CEO of Enron, was found guilty of 19 of 28 charges at the same trial.
Lay's death came less than a week after US prosecutors June 30 asked the court to issue a preliminary order of forfeiture against both Lay and Skilling. The government asked the judge to allow it to seize $43 million in assets from Lay for his use of a company credit line and a bonus, and $140 million from Skilling for stock sales, a bonus and other compensation.
Born and raised in Missouri, Lay, who had a doctorate in economics, worked in the early 1970s as an assistant to the commissioner at the Federal Power Commission, the predecessor of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and as an undersecretary for energy issues at the Department of Interior.
Lay left government service in 1976 to become vice president of Florida Gas. In 1981 he became president and COO of Transco, a natural gas pipeline company. Lay was the newly appointed CEO of Houston Natural Gas in 1985 when InterNorth of Omaha, Nebraska, acquired the pipeline. The merged company, whose headquarters were moved to Houston, was renamed Enron and Lay was appointed CEO. He became chairman of the board in 1990.
July 5, 2006
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