Prosecutors come out slugging at Enron trial (Reuters)

(I hope these guy don't keep up these lousy Baseball metaphors, I don't know how long I can take them)

Prosecutors come out slugging at Enron trial

Fri Feb 3, 2006 06:20 PM ET

By Dan Whitcomb

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors inflicted considerable damage against ex-Enron chiefs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling with their first witness, legal experts say, but the defense was certain to be gunning for him when the trial resumes on Monday. Former Enron investor relations chief Mark Koenig, who testified on Wednesday and Thursday, recounted what he called lies and manipulated earnings reports, and being in the room when Skilling -- on a tape recording played for the jury -- cursed an investor for asking too many pesky questions.

But lawyers watching the case say with four months of the fraud and conspiracy trial ahead, the testimony fell short of being decisive for prosecutors. "Koenig hit the ball hard, but he didn't hit it out of the park," Chris Bebel, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, said. "And one reason he's not capable of hitting the ball out of the park is because he carries extra baggage in the credibility area."

Koenig, who has pleaded guilty and is testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, told jurors that Enron juiced up earnings reports and that Skilling and Lay lied about the energy giant's financial condition. During his testimony jurors also heard an infamous tape in which Skilling, confronted by a hedge-fund investor over Enron's murky financial statements, calls the man an "a**hole" -- in what prosecutors will likely describe as a moment in which the high-flying CEO began to crack under the pressure of maintaining an illusion of the company's financial health.

But defense attorneys, who were expected to begin cross-examining Koenig on Monday, have plenty of ammunition to use against Koenig, both with the plea agreement and with his admission that he previously lied to the SEC and grand jury.

"You don't hit a home run with a witness who has admittedly lied for years but all of a sudden, because he has a get-out-of jail-free card, has changed his mind," said Joel Androphy, a Houston-based defense attorney who has written a book on white-collar crime. "If the prosecution thinks it hit a home run they're not going to last the full nine innings."

(more and page 2 at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=11096445&src=rss/domesticNews>

:bounce:

In a lot of other countries they would just be disappeared and sent off to some work camp, never to be heard from again.

the tip of the iceberg of greed that runs amuck in this country.

:kick: