More Enron

Little sympathy for Enron chief

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HOUSTON, Jan. 29 — It is a very telling videotape. A week after Enron released its first disastrous earnings report, and just one day after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened its investigation into the company’s business practices, Kenneth Lay held a question-and-answer session with his Enron workers.

OCTOBER 23, 2001, the day after federal investigators announced an inquiry, Ken Lay called an all-employee meeting across the street from Enron headquarters. NBC News has obtained a videotape of that tense meeting, which began with Lay complaining that Enron was under attack, and with a promise to restore the company’s plunging stock price.
“Many of you were a lot wealthier six to nine months ago, now concerned about the college education for your kids, maybe the mortgage on house, maybe your retirement,” said Lay. “And for that I am incredibly sorry. But we are going to get it back.”
Lay tells the workers he, too, lost a substantial portion of his net worth, but many in the audience seem hostile during the written question period.
“I would like to know if you are on crack,” read one written question. “If so, that would explain a lot. If not, maybe you ought to start because it is going to be a long time before we trust you again.”
Lay said the hatred is understandable and promised, “There are no big, significant layoffs planned in any group that I’m aware of,” no more fancy accounting and said that Enron can recover. “There is plenty of understanding why some people are hostile,” said Lay during the meeting. “You have some reasons to have some concerns. We have all been damaged.”
Now, a short three months later, Enron is bankrupt and few Enron employees feel sorry for Ken Lay’s personal wealth issues. Lay’s wife, Linda, told NBC News that the couple is broke, that the more than $300 million he earned during the last four years is gone.
“I can’t imagine them being broke,” says Tammie Huthacher, pregnant and now out of a job. She was fired from Enron during the collapse and says the Lays don’t know what broke is. “Broke to Linda Lay and her family, I would think, would probably mean not having a couple million in a bank account.”
In fact, NBC News found eight homes and lots in Houston and two in Galveston still owned by Ken and Linda Lay. It amounts to a total value of more than $10 million, and area realtors say none of the properties are currently listed for sale.
As of January 1, Lay still owned more than 5 million in stocks, including 341,000 shares of Compaq worth $3.5 million and 20,000 shares of Lilly, worth $1.5 million. He’s also entitled to an Enron severance package of $25 million.
Enron employees say that broke clearly means different things to different people.