The gamesmanship continues in the battle between the Enron Task Force and former Enron chairman and CEO Ken Lay over when and how to handle the trial of the government’s bank fraud charges against Mr. Lay. Prior posts on this flanking action in the war between the Task Force and Mr. Lay can be reviewed here, here, and here.
In response to the government’s request for a trial within the next two months on the severed bank fraud charges, Mr. Lay not surprisingly has asked U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to include the bank fraud charges in the January 2006 trial of the larger conspiracy-securities fraud charges in which Mr. Lay is a defendant along with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and fomer Enron chief accountant Richard Causey. However, in an interesting twist, Mr. Lay has requested that Judge Lake adjudicate the bank fraud charges himself rather than allowing those charges to be considered by the jury that will hear the conspiracy-securities fraud charges. Thus, Mr. Lay’s attorneys are attempting to hedge the substantial risk that a jury might be inclined simply to throw the book at Mr. Lay and convict him on all counts whereas he might stand a better chance of acquittal on the bank fraud charges in front of Judge Lake.
Although an interesting strategy, my sense is that Mr. Lay’s approach will not work because the Task Force will want to try the bank fraud charges to a jury, which the government figures will be more sympathetic to its case than Judge Lake. A hearing is scheduled on the matter on April 21. The Chronicle’s Mary Flood’s report on the skirmish is here.