Kenneth

On the advice of counsel, former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay will exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before a Senate hearing today, his spokeswoman said Sunday. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee subpoenaed Lay last week after he decided not to voluntarily testify before a subcommittee hearing investigating Enron’s bankruptcy.

All signals late Friday indicated that former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth L. Lay will testify when he comes before a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee this week, said a spokesman for the full committee.

Capitol Hill investigators are turning the heat up on former Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay, attempting to get him to appear before their committees to explain the Enron meltdown in what is fast becoming an election year political circus.

Dynegy Inc. has named Marian Davenport senior vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, reporting to Kenneth Randolph, executive vice president and general counsel. Davenport has had various executive positions with Dynegy since it acquired Destec Energy in 1997, where she was director of project development.

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay canceled his much-awaited appearances before Senate and House subcommittees this week in the wake of a blistering internal company report that said Lay, as well as other senior management officials, the board of directors and the company’s outside auditor, contributed to the financial collapse of the once-powerful energy trader last fall. Both congressional panels are now considering issuing subpoenas for Lay to testify at a later date.

Kenneth L. Lay, 59, the chairman and CEO of Enron Corp., resigned on Wednesday night. Although expected by many, Lay’s departure as captain of the company he created in 1985 seemed to signal a new beginning for the now bankrupt energy trader. Enron has begun the search for a restructuring specialist who can move the company from insolvency into the black once again.

As regulators and lawyers pick apart the details of Enron Corp.’s undoing, a letter written by a company executive to CEO Kenneth Lay last year raises the possibility that the company may have to reduce past earnings by another $1.3 billion. The letter discloses two investment vehicles — one not previously disclosed — which could cut into earnings more than its four-year restatement in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 9, 2001).

In hindsight, said Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth L. Lay, the company made some “very bad investments in its non-core businesses,” and as a result, the fourth quarter earnings will reflect that. However, Lay emphasized during an investor update conference call that “everything we know, you know.” Enron is expected to update guidance on its fourth quarter earnings in the next few weeks, but going forward, Lay said merger-bound Enron will go “back to basics” and focus on the core assets that had propelled the Houston-based company into the Fortune 100.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has cleared former FERC Chairman Curt Hebert and Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay of any criminal charges and ethics violations stemming from a telephone conversation between the two men last February in which Hebert claimed Lay asked him to change his position on a key Commission policy issue in exchange for his endorsing Hebert to continue on as chairman.