Bush's buddy Kenny indicted

Finally! I already thought it's never going to happen. But now it did: Former Enron Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lay has been indicted for his role in the company's collapse in 2001. Charges could include fraud, securities fraud or insider trading. Lay is the biggest fish landed yet by the Justice Department in its long-running investigation into Enron's stunning collapse. Remember the Enron case? Who wouldn't. Still a little refresher course:
- Enron was transformed from a sleepy pipeline operator into a Wall Street darling that was the U.S.' biggest energy trader. The company's market value catapulted from roughly $2 billion to $80 billion. Its market value was $41 million at the time of Lay's indictment.
- Enron has also been tied to the California energy crisis of 2001. According to internal memos, Enron profited by manipulating the unregulated electricity trading market in California using techniques such as phantom power transfers and megawatt laundering. The company used undisclosed reserves to keep as much as $1.5 billion in trading profits off its books.
- In 2001, Lay sold 491,000 shares of Enron stock, clearing $16.1 million after exercising stock options. All told, Enron officials made nearly $117 million on stock sales in 2001. Thousands of Enron employees, meanwhile, were forbidden from selling the shares they had purchased for the retirement accounts.
- Lay was a close adviser and fund-raiser for President Bush and his father, earning him the presidential nickname of "Kenny Boy." Enron contributed $300,000 to the current president's inauguration celebration.
- Lay had even been considered a contender to become Treasury or Energy secretary in the Bush administration. He is thought to have been one of many energy executives who spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney in a still-secret process to craft a national energy policy in the spring of 2001.
- Lay is the 30th person to be charged in the Enron probe, including 22 from the company and eight from banks, financial firms or accounting firms that did business with Enron.
- Lay told the NYT last month: "I did nothing criminal."