Enron jury begins first full week of deliberation

  

(5/22/06 - HOUSTON) -- The waiting continues for Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling as jurors in their fraud and conspiracy trial deliberate their fates.

The panel of eight women and four men was slated to resume its second full day of deliberations on Monday.

Jurors received the case last week and deliberated about 91/2 hours over a day and a half.

Lay is on trial again without a jury before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on charges stemming from his personal banking. But Skilling has little to do except wait.

The 16-week conspiracy case against Lay and Skilling was the government's marquee trial to emerge from its investigation of Enron's December 2001 descent into bankruptcy protection in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors and a maximum of 275 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy with a combined maximum punishment of 45 years.

Both are accused of repeatedly lying when they told investors and employees Enron was robust when they knew that its financial health was propped up by accounting tricks that hid losses and flailing ventures.

The two men say their optimism was genuine and attribute Enron's failure to bad publicity coupled with lost market confidence rather than fraudulent inner workings that crumbled.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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