The US government used their first witness on Wednesday to make the case that Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, Enron’s former chief executives, were intimately involved in the running of the business and fully aware of its manipulation of earnings.
Mark Koenig, former head of investor relations at Enron, told jurors how the energy trading company fraudulently inflated its quarterly earnings to meet or exceed Wall Street expectations and support the share price.
He said Mr Skilling was involved in the manipulation of earnings, while Mr Lay was aware of the fraud. Mr Koenig explained how earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 1999 had been increased from 30 cents to 31 cents hours before the announcement because of an increase in the consensus expectation of Wall Street analysts.
