Enron founder Ken Lay dead of heart attack [video report]

Kenneth Lay and wife Linda (with daughter Robyn in the background) outside court after his conviction. Picture / Reuters

HOUSTON, US - Enron Corp. founder Ken Lay died of a heart attack overnight, six weeks after he was convicted of fraud in the financial scandal that brought down the once-mighty energy conglomerate.

Lay, 64, was at his vacation home near Aspen, Colorado, awaiting sentencing, and was expected to face decades in prison for his fraud and conspiracy convictions linked to Enron's 2001 bankruptcy.

"Ken Lay passed away early this morning [local time]," Lay family spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said in a statement.

Lay and another former Enron CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, were found guilty of hiding the financial ruin at Enron, the company they built into the seventh largest in the United States.

Once a confidant of former President George H.W. Bush and dubbed "Kenny boy" by President George W. Bush, Lay often appeared fatigued during the four-month trial, but there was no indication that he had suffered any adverse health effects.

"I guess you could say in the last few years I've achieved the American nightmare," Lay told the jury from the witness stand during the trial.

A woman who answered the phone at Skilling's home in Houston declined to comment, and directed questions to his lawyers.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said he had not spoken to Bush about Lay's death, but distanced the president from the former Enron chief.

"The president has described Ken Lay as an acquaintance, and many of the president's acquaintances have passed on during his time in office," Snow told reporters.

At the Enron offices in Houston, where a skeleton crew of workers is engaged in selling off the company's assets to pay creditors, a spokesman offered condolences to Lay's relatives.

"We extend our sympathies to the Lay family in this time of sadness," said Harlan Loeb, an Enron Corp. spokesman.

Pitkin County sheriff's deputies and an ambulance were dispatched to the Lay vacation home in Old Snowmass, Colorado, early on Wednesday morning and transported him to Aspen Valley Hospital. He was pronounced dead there shortly after 3am Mountain time (9pm Wednesday NZT).

"A coroner's autopsy is pending. There will be no further information or press release from this office until autopsy results are available later this week," the county said in a statement.

On Friday, federal prosecutors asked a federal judge to force Lay to forfeit US$43.5 million ($72m) they said he had received because of his crimes at Enron.

A spokesman at the Department of Justice declined to comment on Lay's death and said prosecutors would release a statement in the coming days on how they would proceed with the claims for the money.

Both Lay and Skilling had maintained they were innocent of any crimes at Enron, and both had planned to appeal the guilty verdicts.

Lay, whose wealth at one time totalled more than US$100 million, claimed he had little money left after the Enron bankruptcy, although prosecutors have said he still had millions in annuities and other investments.

Born into poverty as the son of a Baptist preacher in Missouri, Lay excelled in school and advanced quickly in the worlds of government and business before taking the helm of the company that would become Enron.

Lay is survived by his wife, Linda, five children and step-children and 12 grandchildren.

- REUTERS