Kenneth L. Lay

Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief convicted of corporate fraud, died today of a massive heart attack. He was awaiting sentencing for his crimes. This February, Daniel Gross judged the prosecution and defense strategies in the trial of Lay and his co-defendant, Jeff Skilling. Last year, Henry Blodgett reviewed Kurt Eichenwald’s history of the Enron scandal, Conspiracy of Fools, which argued that Lay and Skilling may not have broken the law. In 2002, Heather Borbeau asked whether Lay could make a comeback; David Plotz helped to untangle the web of pointed fingers by creating the Enron Blame Game and Corporate Scandal Trading Cards; and Rob Walker compared Lay and his malfeasance to another former-CEO-in-disgrace, Al Dunlap.