Prosecuting Enron: Inside the trove of evidence that helped take down the energy giant’s former executives

HOUSTON – There’s a treasure trove of documents and evidence spanning the investigation and court cases surrounding the Enron case from federal authorities.

In our reporting as we marked 20 years since the company’s collapse, we traversed the evidence and documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice here and also the FBI’s story of Enron here.

Dig into the documents and you can find some gems like this map of where the executives’ offices were located. Corner offices and then convictions for top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling -- it’s in stark black-and-white right there. It’s important to note that Lay’s convictions were thrown out because he died before he was sentenced.

Also, take a look at this conference call record at the beginning of year that Enron collapsed. In it, Skilling, Enron CEO who served 14 years in prison, describes the company’s previous year in this way: “Earlier today we reported our fourth quarter and full-year 2000 results. We hope you’ve had a chance to see the release. In summary, we had a tremendous year in the year 2000. Strong results reflect what we believe is a breakout performance in all of our operations. The results also further demonstrate our leading market positions in each of our major businesses.”

In truth, the company was already failing.

There’s also this company employee presentation that drips with depressing irony, knowing what we do about what would be coming in the next short months for the energy behemoth. Some sad notes from that presentation that especially hurt when you think about what happened to so many who lost so much: On page 5, the presentation reads, “Earnings power of the organization is high despite recent market and organization turmoil” and on that same page outlining the company’s direction it reads, “Enron’s New Vision: From “The World’s Leading Energy Company” to…”The World’s Leading Company.”

Also compelling, take a look at this verdict slips. GUILTY. GUILTY. GUILTY. It’s a trend, handwritten in cursive (for Lay, for Skilling), that has stark simplicity that is in contrast to the extensive trove of documents outlining the dizzying movement and sale of money and shares.

When you look at the FBI’s fascinating rundown of how the case developed in Houston. what surfaces is the people, from those who investigated to those who were affected. The probe began as a two-agent operation to a staff of 45 people, including agents and support staff “hand-picked from field offices around the country for their expertise in traversing even the most circuitous paper trails.” The people who were hurt pushed on the federal authorities: the FBI wrote, “It was the thousands of victims, hard-working employees who lost their pensions, and the desire to hold accountable those responsible for the failure of Enron, that motivated agents, analysts, and others on the Enron Task Force to press ahead on the massive case.”

COMPLETE COVERAGE ON THE 20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ENRON’S COLLAPSE:

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