Former Enron chief executive Jeffey Skilling failed to convince even his own mother that he was out of the loop -- as he told Congress last week -- on the company's accounting woes that led to its collapse, Newsweek reported Sunday.
"When you are the CEO and you are on the board of directors, you are supposed to know what's going on with the rest of the company," Betty Skilling said in an interview with the magazine. "You can't get off the hook with me there ... He's going to have to beat this the best way he can."
Skilling, the highest ranking Enron official to speak publicly about the meltdown, told a congressional panel he was unaware of any financing plans to conceal debts or other actions to mislead shareholders.
But Representative Billy Tauzin, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that held the hearing, said Skilling could face perjury charges if his testimony is proven to be false.
"All the information we got was that he really thought he was smarter than everybody in Washington, that he could come and just, you know, flamboozle us, just tell us anything he wanted, and we would buy it," Tauzin told CBS on Sunday. "I'm afraid he may have put himself in some legal jeopardy as a result."
Tauzin added that "you can't come to Congress, take the oath to tell the truth, and then not tell the truth without some problems ... we're hearing from others in the corporation that he came to us and told us a lot of untruths. If he did that, if that is true, there are some consequences to that."
Meanwhile, former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, scheduled to testify under subpoena before Congress today, will assert his right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions, his spokeswoman said last night.
"Under the instruction of counsel, Mr. Lay will exercise his Fifth Amendment rights at the Tuesday hearing," Kelly Kimberly said in Houston. She declined further comment.
Two committees snubbed by Lay a week ago have issued subpoenas compelling him to appear. Some lawmakers had said they expected he would assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination, though his attorney had not previously indicated he would do so.
"We will be respectful but tough," in questioning Lay, Senator Byron Dorgan, chairman of a Senate Commerce panel on consumer affairs, had said earlier.
Lay, who was a friend and political backer of President George W. Bush, has not spoken publicly about the Enron disaster since the company entered bankruptcy in December.
Lay's wife, Linda, said recently that there were some things about Enron's finances her husband wasn't told about by other company officials.
After an intense week of hearings, lawmakers say they have strong evidence of illegal activity surrounding the failure of the energy-trading company, which slid into the biggest bankruptcy in US history on Dec. 2.
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