Jeffrey

After more than 16 weeks in the courtroom, the fate of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling was in the hands of the jury Wednesday. The two former chiefs face decades in prison if they are convicted.

Speaking to a packed courtroom, defense lawyers for Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling made their final arguments to the jury on Tuesday, telling the eight women and four men that the prosecution had “rewritten history” to make its case and failed to prove the two former chiefs had committed any crimes.

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling “lied over and over and over again” to investors and employees “through accounting tricks, fiction, hocus-pocus, trickery, misleading statements, half-truths, omissions and outright lies,” federal prosecutor Kathryn H. Ruemmler told a packed courtroom on Monday during closing arguments in the 16-week-long case that could send the two former chiefs to prison for dozens of years.

Jurors weighing the fate of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling will be able to consider whether the men were “deliberately ignorant” and disregarded warnings about possible misconduct at the company, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled this week. Lake will read the 50 pages of instructions, which are used to apply to the facts in the case, to the jury on Monday.

After 52 witnesses over 53 days, testimony ended Monday morning in the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Jurors now will have a week to think about the case before closing arguments begin next week, and they could begin deliberations by May 17.

The 15-week-long fraud and conspiracy trial of former Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling is moving into its final days, and the presiding judge said the trial could be in the jury’s hands by May 17. The defense expects to rest its case by Tuesday, and the government is expected to call no more than 10 rebuttal witnesses, who are all expected to briefly testify.

As the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling begins to move into its final days, the defense called more witnesses on Thursday to counter the government’s claims against the two former chiefs. The trial is expected to resume on Monday, and it could go to the jury in less than two weeks.

In what is shaping up to be some of the most riveting testimony to date in the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, federal prosecutor John Hueston began a tense cross-examination of Lay on Wednesday, accusing the former chief of attempting to influence witnesses and breaching Enron’s code of ethics.

After nearly eight days on the witness stand trying to convince jurors that he did nothing wrong as president, COO and CEO of Enron Corp., Jeffrey Skilling was able to relax — sort of — by midday Thursday. Tired after a grueling cross-examination that lasted three days, Skilling told reporters outside the Houston courtroom that he had said what he wanted to say.