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Everything must go for ex-Enron chief October 2 2002 'No, it isn't easy to part with pieces of your life," says Linda Lay, as she settles into the richly embroidered upholstery of the 19th-century chaise longue that dominates the downstairs display of her store in Houston. Her manicured nails trace its ornately carved gold arms, lingering to fiddle with the $US2600 ($4785) price tag that dangles discreetly from a black raffia ribbon. "Prince Albert of Monaco once sat upon this," she says brightly. "It's seen some famous folk." She points to a pair of stone angels that formerly graced a 17th-century French church. "What's really hard is parting with the religious items I've collected, not the furniture," she says. The angels have red "sold" signs hanging from their wings. It seems a little pious, a little practised. But then Lay, 56, the wife of Kenneth Lay, the disgraced former chief executive of Enron, the bankrupt American energy company, is well versed in marketing herself. Before she opened Jus' Stuff, the antiques gallery that she has leased to sell the couple's belongings after pleading poverty when the $US30 billion Enron empire collapsed, she employed Hill & Knowlton, the biggest public relations firm in Texas, indeed the world, to perfect the art. When your husband, once lauded as the city's chief benefactor, is now the city's social pariah, you need all the public relations help you can get. (Kenneth Lay is under investigation in several lawsuits over the $US70 million he realised by selling his Enron shares - before it went bankrupt last December - while encouraging shareholders to buy.) "It isn't nice to sell things from one's own home," she says in a despondent voice. Which one, I ask disingenuously? After all, the Lays had 15 houses worth more than $US40 million - 13 in Texas worth almost $US29 million, and two in Aspen, Colorado. It cannot be easy, it must be supposed, to remember which item came from where. As Lay, the former first lady of Houston's elite social circuit who once dined with presidents and entertained royalty, greets another customer, 4.8 kilometres across the city, Jimmy Luu, the owner of a Houston computer company, is posing for a photograph beside the 1.5 metre- high "crooked E" corporate emblem that once emblazoned Enron's offices. It is the first day of the Enron liquidation auction and Luu has successfully bid $US44,000 for the emblem. "It's an opportunity to preserve a piece of corporate history," he crows excitedly. "I would have paid whatever it took." Three thousand buyers queued for three hours in the heat for the chance to bid for some of the 6000 Enron items - from computers that sold for thousands of dollars to $US325 DVD players and television sets, as well as $US10 beer coolers and golf balls stamped with the Enron logo. Another 20,000 made bids online. Some just wanted a souvenir of the company that ditched 4500 employees in Houston, many of whom lost life savings and pensions that were tied up in Enron stock. Many lost their homes - unlike the Lays, these people had only the one. Back in Jus' Stuff, Lay does not wish to discuss the Enron auction. She is busily marking 20 per cent off items that have not sold. She is in her "scruffs" today, she tells me - embroidered jeans and polo shirt - because she is clearing out a storeroom to accommodate more stock. "We've already cleared the stock four times," she trills, her Washington accent now decidedly taking on a Texan drawl. "Ken and I have just agreed the sale of two more homes so we're waiting to see if the buyers want the furnishings. If not, they will come here." She scratches her head and moans: "If I'd known I would be going into retail I would have kept better records." Robyn, her daughter, who co-owns the store, raises her eyebrows. "Mum was used to going around the world buying what she fancied. She never thought about price and provenance," she says. "That's why we've had to have so many pieces valued - Mum has no idea what she paid for them. We don't want to charge $1000 for something worth $5000." Perhaps realising that she may have committed a PR gaffe, she adds quickly: "But we've all had to downsize. We have all had to move to smaller houses." There is downsizing and there is downsizing. Lay and her husband (she calls him "Kenneth boy") have sold the two Aspen homes and she insists that all the others - save their $US8 million penthouse in the elite River Oaks development in Houston - must be sold. Naturally, however, they are not selling at a loss. A 280-square-metre house sold for $US10 million. They bought it 11 years ago for $US1.9 million. There is also the $US103 million - including a salary of $US1.7 million, a bonus of $US7 million, long-term incentives of $US3.6 million, $US81.5 million in loan advances and not forgetting the $US49 million of stock options and restricted stock - that Kenneth Lay collected last year alone. Why, then, did Lay go on national television, weeping bitterly, to claim: "It's all gone. We've lost everything." The crying poor act outraged former friends in Texas. But Lay says: "What we make here is towards legal bills." Her husband, it is rumoured, spends 10 hours a day cooped up with his lawyer. Angelina Lario, who lives in Katy, 30 miles from the Lays, crosses the street when she walks past Jus' Stuff's expensive facade in Main Street. Lario worked for Enron for 26 years and amassed more than $US500,000 of shares, which were to be her pension. "They lied to us repeatedly," she says. "We were told that the company was doing great. When, at the last employee meeting, someone stuck up his hand and asked Kenneth Lay if he was on crack, I thought it was so disrespectful. Now I know better." The Telegraph, London This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/01/ 1033283486548.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's important) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. 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