Scrutiny increases for Lay, Enron

WASHINGTON -- Star witness and presidential friend Kenneth Lay. Enron employees' loss of their retirement savings. The company's intricate web of partnerships. All come under the glare of public scrutiny this week as Congress delves into a huge corporate failure heavy with political overtones.

"The more I've seen of this the more it smells. There's something dreadfully wrong that happened in this corporation," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who is leading one of the numerous investigations.

Lay, Enron's chairman until his Jan. 23 resignation, is the builder and most powerful symbol of the collapsed energy conglomerate. On Monday, he is expected to speak publicly about the calamity for the first time at a hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee.

Among the questions: Was Enron's stunning failure caused by bad luck, incompetence or greed? Were illegal actions involved? Where were the company's directors while this was happening? How much did they profit from it? Were they kept in the dark by senior executives?

Minutes of Enron board meetings from late 1997 to mid-2000 show that Lay and other directors had detailed information about the complex partnerships that kept some $500 million in debt off the company's balance sheet, hidden from investors and federal securities regulators.