In an earlier post, I noted a report that the Justice Department is currently focusing on whether to indict former Enron Chairman and CEO Ken Lay. In a NY Times piece today, the timing of which is not good for Mr. Lay, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind –authors of the best Enron debacle book to date, “The Smartest Guys in the Room“–question why Martha Stewart is enduring a securities fraud trial over a relatively trifling matter while Mr. Lay has still not even been indicted?
The probable answer is that the criminal case against Ms. Stewart is simpler than any possible criminal case against Mr. Lay in regard to the hyper-complicated affairs of Enron. However, the more troubling issue is whether Ms. Stewart’s high profile status has generated a high publicity prosecution by the Justice Department attorneys in a case that probably would have never been prosecuted (or at least been settled quietly) had the defendant not been as high profile as Ms. Stewart.