Enron Victims Look Forward to Justice at Trial

Jan. 30, 2006 — -- When Charlie Prestwood retired to his small rural home north of Houston, after 33 years of working in a power plant, he knew exactly what he had in his nest egg.

"1,310,570 dollars and some few cents. That was my life savings," Prestwood said.

Today that nest egg is gone. Like thousands of other former Enron employees, he is still struggling to recover from his loss. He says at his age, 67, he won't live long enough to ever recoup that money.

Prestwood gets by on his Social Security checks, watches every penny he spends, and prays nothing will go wrong with his house, his truck or his health. He blames Enron's top management.

At one time, Enron was the largest energy trader in the world. It declared bankruptcy and unceremoniously sacked thousands of employees. It also froze its employees' 401(k) retirement programs for a time, during which many workers found most of their life savings wiped out, as Enron's stock plummeted from $90 a share to less than $1 share in just weeks.

Enron founder Ken Lay and CEO Jeff Skilling are to go on trial today for allegedly lying about the health of their company while dumping half a billion dollars of their own stock, charges that both deny. Lay, in a speech to the Houston Forum Club last month, vowed to clear his name, and that of the company he built and loved.

"I will testify at my trial," he said. "I will do my best to get the truth out. I for one do not wish to leave the responsibility for undertaking the difficult task of clearing Enron and my name to my children or my grandchildren or those willing to dig through the rubble long after we are gone".

Lay blames one person for the collapse of Enron -- former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.

"Did I wonder if I have a crook right in the middle of my senior management ranks? " Lay said. "I never did do that in 35 years. You don't expect that after a lot [of] the vetting that these people go through, plus working with him for years. But sometimes you can be sadly tragically mistaken in that."