Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay's family likely will keep $44 million in ill-gotten wealth, according to Wednesday's Washington Post. That's because the Republican-led Congress ignored an urgent request from Federal prosecutors to change the law to facilitate the seizure of loot from the estates of convicted criminals like Lay.
The Feds had hoped to seize this loot and use it to build a special fund to compensate Enron's defrauded employees and shareholders. Lay's recent death prompted the prosecutors' appeal to Congress, because they anticipated Tuesday's erasure of Lay's criminal conviction in accordance with the long-established precedent of "abatement" -- the legal tradition that the dead cannot be punished.
As we all know, the Repugs in Congress had other priorities more important than helping the victims of their long-time patrons who ran Enron into the ground. Is it not too late to tie this story in with the theme of "Do Nothing Congress" and corporate cronyism? Is there someone out there who can distill this into a 30-second ad for use against GOP leaders like Hastert and company?