Federal prosecutors yesterday asked a judge to start the bank fraud trial of former Enron Corp. chief executive Kenneth L. Lay no later than June.
The filing is the latest salvo in a public battle between prosecutors and Lay and his defense team. Lay is facing two separate trials related to his conduct at the Houston energy trading company, which plummeted into bankruptcy and ultimately came to symbolize an era of corporate greed.
The larger fraud case, in which Lay will stand trial alongside former protege Jeffrey K. Skilling and accountant Richard A. Causey, is set to begin in January 2006. All three men have pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges.
Lay has spoken out repeatedly since his indictment last year, telling interviewers that he wants his day in court to come quickly. But a few weeks ago, defense lawyers for Lay filed court papers asking that the more limited case against him, in which he is charged with misleading banks about how he used loans, take place only after the massive fraud trial ends next year.
In the smaller case, Lay faces three false statements and one bank fraud charge to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Andrew Weissmann, director of the Enron Task Force, yesterday argued in court papers that there is "no reason" for such a long postponement in a trial that is likely to last just one week. Prosecutors said yesterday that they would agree to a trial by jury, or to have U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III decide the case without a jury, which could take even less time.
"Now, when he can have what he has so long championed in the media and before the Court, Lay balks," Weissmann wrote.
Kelly Kimberly, a spokeswoman for Lay, said his legal team "is evaluating the documents" and will prepare a response later this week.
Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against nearly 30 people in connection with Enron's demise.
In the other case, the government's charges against Lay are more limited than those against Skilling and Causey, who allegedly spearheaded a long-running conspiracy to deceive investors about Enron's financial health.
Charges against Lay mostly date to 2001, when he returned as chief executive after Skilling's abrupt departure. Lay reaped a salary of $1 million, a bonus of $7 million, and nearly $4 million more in incentive payments that year, misleading investors and employees about the true state of Enron's precarious financial condition, the indictment said.
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