The "I'm an Idiot" Defense

Yesterday, hearts soared as former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay got to do his perp walk in handcuffs to his federal grand jury indictment. Afterwards, he held a press conference, where he engaged in an old white-collar crime technique: the "I'm an idiot" defense.

Lay reiterated that he assumed responsibility for Enron's downfall, but "that does not mean I know everything that went on at Enron."

In other words, I was the leader of the company, but I had no idea that the company was illegally increasing its market value through bad accounting, even though that was the entire modus operandi of the company. Lay was the public face of the company; he was the one who talked to investors about the state of affairs and future prospects. And he was clearly explaining to everyone how good things were going, when in fact the company was on the verge of disaster. So his actual defense is that he wasn't lying, he was just stupid! The head of the company didn't know what was going on at the company? Why do I have trouble believing that?

Lay also found a scapegoat in CFO Andrew Fastow, who's already plea bargained to the government. As if a CFO and CEO never talk to one another. It's so clear that the Enron scandal was the result of a policy of greed, where market manipulation and overinflated stock reports are par for the course. That policy of greed begins and ends at the top.

Strangely, Kenny Boy's best friend was silent about the whole affair. W walked out on a press conference after being asked about the Lay indictment. Maybe he went to talk about it to that lawyer he hired (he'll have to get to know about the whole perp walk thing).

Perhaps Lay can hire Giovanni DeStefano, a lawyer who is, get this, representing both Slobodan Milosevic AND Saddam Hussein. Now there's a guy with a conscience gap.