Yesterday at 9 AM PDT I had a most delightful alert hit my inbox.

Jury: Enron CEOs Lay, Skilling found guilty of fraud

By Jim Jelter

Last Update: 12:12 PM ET May 25, 2006

HOUSTON (MarketWatch)– A jury on Thursday found Enron founder and former CEO Kenneth Lay guilty on all six counts of fraud and conspiracy charges while former CEO Jeffrey Skilling was found guilty on all securities fraud counts but acquitted of insider trading charges.

And it reminded me of a joke that made the internet rounds at the time of the Enron crash.

When Kenny was young he moved to the country and bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.’

Kenny replied, ‘Well then, just give me my money back.’

The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’

Kenny said, ‘OK then, at least give me the donkey.’

The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with him?’

Kenny: ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’

Farmer: ‘ You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’

Kenny: ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he is dead.’

A month later the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’

Kenny: ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898.’

Farmer: ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’

Kenny: ‘Sure, the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’

Kenny grew up, went to college, and (as you probably guessed) became a CEO.

Have a great holiday weekend and I’ll see you all Tuesday.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 26th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under Business info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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