Silence Is Golden At Enron

Ken Lay and Andrew Fastow, former CEO and CFO of Houston energy giant Enron both exercised their constitutional right to plead the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond to any questions at the House Energy Committee hearings in Washington Thursday.

This was in sharp contrast to Jeffrey Skilling, Lay's predecessor, who was grilled by the Committee investigators for over three hours. Leaving Enron for 'personal reasons' in August 2001, Mr Skilling confirmed that he had no knowledge of any fraudulent dealings and felt that the company was essentially sound and profitable at the time of the collapse. He blamed the downfall of the organization on a lack of liquidity and a run on the company.