Lay: Fastow to blame for Enron collapse

Ken Lay, the founder and former chief of Enron, claimed the collapse of the energy company was primarily due to the actions of jailed ex-finance chief Andrew Fastow.
Testifying at his, and fellow former boss, Jeff Skilling’s fraud trial, Lay told the Houston court that the two biggest mistakes he made at Enron was hiring Andrew Fastow and then promoting him to chief financial officer.

Lay claimed the collapse of his company has been ‘incredibly painful’ and called Fastow ‘a liar and a thief’ - in response to earlier testimony given by Fastow implicating Lay and Skilling in the accounting scandal that led to the multi-billion dollar demise of Enron.

Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy, while Skilling faces 28 criminal counts of conspiracy, fraud, lying to auditors and insider trading.

Both men deny any wrongdoing