BP Editors
Although he passed away in 2006, Kenneth Lay’s name will be synonymous with corporate greed and corruption for years to come. The former CEO of Enron not only helped found it as a natural gas company in 1985 but helped grow it to a $68 billion corporation. But as TIME put it, “much of that money was based on shady accounting practices and losses not recorded in its financial statements.” The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy, costing employees their jobs and savings and investors billions of dollars. Lay, along with Jeffrey Skilling, another Enron executive, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, but died before he was sentenced.
