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6 July 2006 - The former chairman US energy group Enron has died of a suspected heart attack just weeks after he and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling were found guilty in May in connection with Enron's collapse. He was pronounced dead in hospital in Aspen, Colorado in the early hours of Wednesday morning after suffering a heart attack.
Lay was at the centre of America's most high-profile corporate fraud trial brought following the spectacular collapse of Enron in 2001. The company went bankrupt with debts of $31.8bn, leaving 4000 people out of work.
Lay continued to maintain his innocence after a court found him guilty on 25 May on all six fraud and conspiracy charges that he faced. At the time of his death Lay was on bail awaiting sentencing in October and was facing up to 45 years behind bars.
He described Enron's collapse as "the most devastating and heartbreaking tragedy of my life".
The 64-year-old had led Enron for 15 years from its birth in 1986 after the merger of two Houston-based gas pipeline firms.
From this small beginning, Enron went on to become America's seventh biggest company and the world's largest energy trading firm.
The financial crimes that Lay and Skilling who succeeded Mr. Lay as chief executive and presided over Enron during its implosion, were convicted of committing came to symbolize the corporate excess and greed of the 1990's. Lay and Skilling were found by the jury to have lied to investors, employees and regulators so they could disguise the financial weaknesses of their energy empire.
According to reports, Mr Lay was taken by ambulance from his holiday home in Old Snowmass, Colorado, on Wednesday morning and driven to Aspen Valley Hospital.
"A coroner's autopsy is pending," a county official said. "There will be no further information or press release from this office until autopsy results are available later this week."
A spokeswoman for the Lay family, Kelly L. Kimberly, confirmed reports of Mr. Lay's death but declined to discuss specifics. In a prepared statement, Kimberly said: "Ken Lay passed away early this morning in Aspen. The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate. And out of respect for the family, we will release further details at a later time."
Mr Lay is survived by his wife, Linda and five children and step-children.
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