(Ken) Lay Defense Blames Auto Signature Machine (2nd Trial)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/05/19/financial/f044801D02.DTL

The automated signature machine did it. Attorneys for Kenneth Lay suggested bank loan documents containing terms he allegedly violated actually were signed by an automatic signature device in the Enron Corp. founder's office and not by him.

Lay went on trial Thursday on one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements regarding personal banking issues.

The trial, expected to wrap up as early as Tuesday, got under way the day after jurors began deliberating the nearly four-month-long fraud and conspiracy case of Lay and former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling. Lay is charged with six counts in that case, Skilling with 28.

Prosecutors allege that beginning in 1999, Lay obtained $75 million in loans from three banks — Bank of America, Chase Bank of Texas and Compass Bank — and then reneged on an agreement with the lenders that he wouldn't use the money to carry or buy stock. Under federal rules adopted after the 1929 stock market crash, only 50 percent of a loan can be used to buy margin stock, generally defined as a stock listed on a national securities exchange and most mutual funds.

:rofl: Now he's blaming a machine for his ethical and moral corruption? I repeat...
:rofl:

Keep lying, Ken! Perjury adds to the sentence!

(Presuming he's going to testify to this himself, of course.)

I guess they should now ask him to produce this machine and also, what the hell was he doing that he needed a machine, for sending out bulk mailing, to sign his bank documents? I would think that could mean massive bank fraud.

bad that happens is anybody's fault. However, when something good happens, they are the first ones to step up to take credit. Look at how Shrub operates -- nothing bad is ever his fault. However, he loves to take credit for things whether he had anything to do with them or not.

Personal Responsibility only when it is convenient for them. These guys are like little kids.

"Who signed these documents?"

"I don't know. I think it was the machine."

If that is the best defense they can come up with, they are in some serious shit.

Give up the freakin' lies, Kenny Boy! :grr:

At his salary rate, the two seconds it would take him to sign a document himself just wasn't cost-effective.

There are workers in India who would neglect their duties for a lot less.

They can sign checks, they can sign standardized letters, they can sign standardized cards.

They cannot sign a loan document. Someone with a hand stamp could sign it, but a machine cannot.

for his actions?!?

But, when the news of malfeasance comes out, they claim they don't know a thing.

'my dog ate my homework'