Inside the culture and collapse of Enron

They lied, cheated, and stole. Then giggled about it. They considered their conspirators brilliant and their deception intellectually stimulating.

They were Enron executives, and these are a few of the details they have provided to jurors in the first criminal trial since the energy giant collapsed in a whirlwind of financial trouble three years ago.

While the defendants are not household names and their alleged misdeeds not well-known, the trial is offering a firsthand glimpse into Enron's corporate culture before it filed for bankruptcy - and giving the public an inkling of what to expect in the trial of the company's most senior leaders, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Richard Causey.

Last week, the government rested its case three weeks after it began; now the defense attorneys begin their fight to prove the innocence of the six executives charged with conspiring to fake the sale of Nigerian power barges to boost Enron's bottom line. Two are former Enron employees and four are from Merrill Lynch, the bank involved in the transaction.

"This case is a preview of coming attractions from the government," says Gerald Treece, dean of the South Texas College of Law in Houston. "Prosecutors aren't using all their witnesses in this first trial. They are saving their big guns for later."

Although 14 people have pleaded guilty, this trial marks the first time anyone has spoken publicly about their own illegal involvement in the demise of Enron - and the testimony is jarring.

Last week, the government ended its case with its star witness, former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan Jr. Dressed in an olive-green prison uniform, Mr. Glisan explained to jurors that he was serving five years in a federal prison after pleading guilty a year ago to "helping Enron appear to be financially stronger than it really was. In effect, I lied about the health of the company."

Before testifying for the government, Glisan received immunity from US District Judge Ewing Werlein. He then went on to list nearly a dozen deals, including the Nigerian barge deal, which he believes were illegal, and described one in particular on which he personally made $1 million.

"I believed I was working for a strong, aggressive company that hired very smart people," he said, "some of the brightest minds around. And we solved extremely difficult problems."

But increasingly, he said his time was consumed with "masking those issues."

When he started in 1996, Glisan earned $100,000 in salary and a "modest" $20,000 in bonuses; he ended in 2001 with a salary of almost $200,000 and $1 million in bonuses. From the witness stand, he calmly described how he increasingly saw the company manufacturing earnings in his years at Enron.

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