‘Fastow lied to Enron bosses’
Former CFO comes under fire during cross-examination
Andrew Fastow, the disgraced former finance chief at Enron, has been accused
of lying to his boss at the time, Ken Lay about the true state of the company’s
finances.
Ken Lay’s defence lawyer, Andrew Ramsey, accused Fastow of misleading his
bosses into thinking Enron was financially strong, while at the same time acting
to bring about its collapse.
In his cross examination, Ramsay said to Fastow: ‘You were very proficient at
looking him [Mr Lay] right straight in the face and telling him you were loyal
and he could count on you, but you knew in your heart you were stealing from the
house.’
Ramsay then accused Fastow of lying about Enron’s finances from 1997 all the
way to 2001.
Fastow came under heavy attack following his own damning evidence against Lay
and fellow former boss Jeff Skilling accusing them of lying about the state of
the company’s finances months before its collapse.
Lay and Skilling deny 35 counts of fraud against them.