Indictment accuses ex-chief

The company's founder surrendered to the FBI this morning.
HOUSTON (AP) -- Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was involved in a wide-ranging scheme to deceive the public, company shareholders and government regulators about the energy company that he founded and led to industry prominence before its collapse in 2001, according to an indictment unsealed today.
The federal indictment adds Lay to charges already filed against his hand-picked prot & eacute;g & eacute;, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, and former top accountant Richard Causey.
It accuses Lay of participating in a conspiracy to manipulate Enron Corp.'s quarterly financial results, of making public statements about Enron's financial performance that were false and misleading and omitting facts necessary to make financial statements accurate and fair.
Contents released
The contents of the indictment were released a few hours after Lay was taken away in handcuffs after turning himself in this morning to the FBI to face criminal charges.
The indictment of Lay, 62, who also was Enron's chairman, caps an investigation that snared dozens of other employees and executives but took nearly three years to reach the man at the top.
Enron's collapse in late 2001 cost investors billions of dollars, put thousands of Enron employees out of work and wiped out retirement savings for many. The company, once admired, became a symbol of corporate greed and excess, and its fall was followed by a string of scandals at other companies.
Lay, accompanied by a pastor, emerged from an SUV driven by his wife, Linda, and walked into Houston's FBI headquarters at dawn today.
"Nice of you all to show up this morning," Lay told a throng of reporters.
About 20 minutes later, his hands behind him in cuffs, Lay was placed in a sedan with authorities for the drive to Houston's federal courthouse. After arriving there, he was led into the building through a back door.
He had said Wednesday he had committed no crimes.
"I have done nothing wrong, and the indictment is not justified," Lay, 62, said in a statement Wednesday after learning of the indictment.
Charges expected
The Securities and Exchange Commission also was expected to bring civil fraud charges against Lay today, including making false and misleading statements and insider trading, a person familiar with the case said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Prosecutors have aggressively pursued the one-time celebrity CEO and friend and contributor to President Bush who led Enron's rise to No. 7 in the Fortune 500 and resigned within weeks of its stunning failure. Lay is the 30th and highest-profile individual charged.
Skilling succeeded Lay as CEO in February 2001 and resigned abruptly six months later, just weeks before the scandal broke. He was indicted in February on nearly three dozen counts of fraud and other crimes.
Waiting to testify for the prosecution is former finance chief Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts in January. Fastow admitted to orchestrating partnerships and financial schemes to hide Enron debt and inflate profits while pocketing millions of dollars for himself.
Enron's collapse led a series of corporate scandals that led to Congress' passage of sweeping reforms to securities laws with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act two years ago. Thousands of Enron's workers lost their jobs, and the stock fell from a high of $90 in August 2000 to just pennies, wiping out many workers' retirement savings.
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