Word: laying
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...business section to the front page, the country saw a tense, cautious President trying his best to distance himself from one of his biggest campaign contributors, the friend he used to call "Kenny Boy." In the Oval Office on Thursday, Bush told reporters he hadn't seen "Mr. Lay" since last spring...
...there is no evidence that anyone in the Administration did anything wrong or that the half a million dollars that Lay and his fellow Enron executives invested in Bush's political career over the years bought them any special favors. But Bush knows he stands in the line of fire. Democrats have been unable to hang the recession on him, but many hope that Enron's hapless employees--whose retirement nest eggs vaporized even as their bosses were selling off more than $1 billion of their own stock--become the image that sticks. The Enron debacle goes...
Bush was not above a little Clintonesque shading of the truth last Thursday as he described his relationship with Lay. "He was a supporter of [Democratic incumbent Governor] Ann Richards in my run in 1994," said the President, adding that he got to know Lay after that. This came as a surprise to a great many people in Texas, as Lay and his wife contributed $47,500 to Bush's campaign that year (and a mere $12,500 to Richards') and Enron's political-action committee and executives donated nearly $100,000 more to Bush, according to the watchdog group...
...then, Lay was in the middle of a personal stock sell-off. On Aug. 20 he exercised options to buy 25,000 shares at $20.78 a share. The next day he exercised an additional 68,000 shares at $21.56. On both days, the stock closed around $36, which meant Lay netted nearly $1.5 million before taxes. He continued to be a huge booster for the stock for another month. As late as Sept. 26, Lay would try to reassure Enron employees that "our financial liquidity has never been stronger." But as the stock fell last fall, company employees were told...
...Enron too said as little as possible last week as the company tried to reorganize itself and as Lay and other top executives tried to fend off lawsuits filed by angry employees and other investors. The law makes it extremely difficult to confiscate the personal assets of corporate officers in punishment for actions on behalf of the company, but if there were ever a chairman who courted that fate, it is Lay. Last week he put three properties in Aspen up for sale, for $16 million, and huddled with his lawyers in preparation for congressional hearings next month...