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CNN Live At Daybreak
'Coffey Talk'
Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little Coffey talk now on legal matters involving Enron and its former CEO, Jeffrey Skilling.
Let's head live to Miami and Kendall Coffey -- good morning, Kendall.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, it seemed like it took forever to charge this guy.
COFFEY: Well, the key thing had to be getting Andrew Fastow to plead guilty and cooperate with the government. He was the CFO. He was dealing with Skilling all the time. And once they had that piece of the puzzle together, they were ready to go. Thirty-six counts and obviously the biggest prize to date in the Enron investigation.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm looking at those pictures. Federal officials certainly made a big deal of it. It was no accident that television cameras were there to get Skilling in handcuffs being taken into custody.
Defense attorneys are calling Skilling a scapegoat.
Anything to that?
COFFEY: Well, certainly they're, that's a standard issue when charges are brought, especially in something that's had so much publicity. But the indictment details very, very troubling things, not the least of which is Skilling profiting over to the tune of $60 million, allegedly from insider trading, deals he was getting selling Enron's stock even though allegedly he knew all the time Enron was fast sinking and its stock value was ultimately going to go down.
COSTELLO: Well, who could forget his testimony before Congress when he said, you know, I'm not an accountant, I didn't know what was going on?
COFFEY: It amazed everybody, Carol, because the percentage thing to do was take the Fifth. A big P.R. hit, but at least you lie a little bit lower and don't expose yourself to perjury.
But Skilling obviously has decided from day one that he is going to be an aggressive guy, defend what he does, and I don't think we can expect any pleas any time soon in this particular case.
COSTELLO: Serious charges, though. If he's convicted, he faces life and $80 million in fines.
Another Enron bigwig, Andrew Fastow, he's already in prison. He must be dropping information like mad.
COFFEY: And the big question now is OK, they've got Fastow, 10 years. Obviously, his testimony or cooperation with the government helped them nail Skilling. Will they ever be able to get to Lay? And with respect to Ken Lay, he's in a different position than Skilling because Lay has from day one been doing the empty suit, hear no evil, see no evil thing. It sounds like a bad example, but from a criminal exposure standpoint, a whole lot better to be asleep at the switch than in the kitchen supervising master chef Andrew Fastow while he was cooking the books.
COSTELLO: It should be fascinating testimony.
Kendall Coffey live from Miami this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little Coffey talk now on legal matters involving Enron and its former CEO, Jeffrey Skilling.
Let's head live to Miami and Kendall Coffey -- good morning, Kendall.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, it seemed like it took forever to charge this guy.
COFFEY: Well, the key thing had to be getting Andrew Fastow to plead guilty and cooperate with the government. He was the CFO. He was dealing with Skilling all the time. And once they had that piece of the puzzle together, they were ready to go. Thirty-six counts and obviously the biggest prize to date in the Enron investigation.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm looking at those pictures. Federal officials certainly made a big deal of it. It was no accident that television cameras were there to get Skilling in handcuffs being taken into custody.
Defense attorneys are calling Skilling a scapegoat.
Anything to that?
COFFEY: Well, certainly they're, that's a standard issue when charges are brought, especially in something that's had so much publicity. But the indictment details very, very troubling things, not the least of which is Skilling profiting over to the tune of $60 million, allegedly from insider trading, deals he was getting selling Enron's stock even though allegedly he knew all the time Enron was fast sinking and its stock value was ultimately going to go down.
COSTELLO: Well, who could forget his testimony before Congress when he said, you know, I'm not an accountant, I didn't know what was going on?
COFFEY: It amazed everybody, Carol, because the percentage thing to do was take the Fifth. A big P.R. hit, but at least you lie a little bit lower and don't expose yourself to perjury.
But Skilling obviously has decided from day one that he is going to be an aggressive guy, defend what he does, and I don't think we can expect any pleas any time soon in this particular case.
COSTELLO: Serious charges, though. If he's convicted, he faces life and $80 million in fines.
Another Enron bigwig, Andrew Fastow, he's already in prison. He must be dropping information like mad.
COFFEY: And the big question now is OK, they've got Fastow, 10 years. Obviously, his testimony or cooperation with the government helped them nail Skilling. Will they ever be able to get to Lay? And with respect to Ken Lay, he's in a different position than Skilling because Lay has from day one been doing the empty suit, hear no evil, see no evil thing. It sounds like a bad example, but from a criminal exposure standpoint, a whole lot better to be asleep at the switch than in the kitchen supervising master chef Andrew Fastow while he was cooking the books.
COSTELLO: It should be fascinating testimony.
Kendall Coffey live from Miami this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
