Scandal Not My Fault, Says Enron Chief

Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief executive, yesterday spoke out for the first time since the company's collapse and placed the blame for the firm's failure squarely on finance chief Andrew Fastow.

In a lengthy interview with the New York Times, Mr Lay protested his innocence, spoke of his vilification in the media and the dramatic slump in his personal finances. He said his wife had compared their lives to an episode of the science fiction series, the Twilight Zone "where you live your whole life" trying to be ethical and straightforward "to almost overnight being referred to in the national media and elsewhere as a kind of pariah".

According to reports, Mr Lay could be indicted on criminal charges as early as this week. He said if that were to happen it would be a "great miscarriage of justice". He would plead not guilty if he faces charges. "I know in my mind, I did nothing wrong and nothing criminal."

Enron collapsed in late 2001. The firm filed for bankruptcy after it emerged that a series of off-balance sheet partnerships, many controlled by senior Enron executives including Mr Fastow, were being used to inflate the company's profits.

Mr Lay said that at the time, he saw nothing suspicious about the off-balance sheet ventures and no reason to distrust his finance chief.

Mr Fastow, alongside a handful of other former Enron finance executives, has since pleaded guilty to numerous fraud charges. He is now cooperating with government prosecutors.

Mr Lay said: "At our core, regrettably, we had a chief financial officer and a few other people who, in fact, mismanaged the company's balance sheet and finances and enriched themselves in a way that once we got into a stressful environment in the marketplace, the company collapsed. But by the same token, most, and I mean 98% of the people who worked at Enron, were good, honest, hardworking individuals. They were not crooks."