the other day, Guest wrote: ".....by the way Ebbie, even the children of Lay and Skilling had to sign all their assests, homes, etc., over to the court at the end of the trial. I am wondering where you get your information."

Ebbie replied: "Guest, I've looked for it but I can't find yuor information. Since the sentencing has not yet occurred, when was it ordered that their assets be signed over?"

what really happened was that, after he was convicted the judge increased Lay's bond -- which keeps him out of jail pending sentencing -- from $500,000 to $5,000,000. Lay's kids had to put up some of their own property to secure his bond and release only because Lay is now claiming (ironically) extreme poverty -- you know, he's unemployed and has these huge legal fees, and any assets that he had are frozen solid. Lay's kids weren't ordered by the court to sign over anything -- they agreed to secure the bond with their own assets to keep Kenny Boy out of the can a little longer. When Lay shows up and is sentenced and is taken into custody, the assets secirung the bond aree released back to the kids. If he doesn't show up for sentencing, the judge can forfeit all those assets. As to Skilling, so far as I can tell, he posted $5,000,000 in cash as a bond at the beginning of the case a couple years ago, and the judge continued his release pending sentencing on the same bond.

Apparently, the Judge has announced that he was going to consider the dollar amount of financial havoc wreaked by these guys as a deciding factor in how much time they get. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, if the losses are upwards of $80,000,000 (including losses to the State of California?), they're looking at upwards of 20 years. A huge amount of restitution is likely to be imposed as well. . . I wonder how much of it ever actually gets paid back, especially if they're in prison for the next twenty-or-so years. I'd also rather see them have to try to work off the debt for the rest of their lives than to sit in prison. But that's not going to happen in this justice system. . .

michael