Tacky Tacky

Ken Lay needs to pay his legal fees. So, he's trying to get the University of Missouri to return a 1.1 million dollar endowment that he gave them in 1999 for an Economics Chair. He initially wanted it back to donate it to charity after Hurrican Katrina (good intentions, at least, if a bit questionable given his previous somewhat shady donations), but when when that didn't materialize, he wants it back to pay legal fees. Um, no. That's not the way it works.

"[The trustee] came expecting to get a check and made clear it was to clear legal fees," says Scott Charton, director of university communications. The meeting was fairly tempestuous, involving threats of litigation. In any case, according to a statement Missouri released on Monday, the university’s general counsel concluded, after talking to the state attorney general, that there were "legal questions" concerning the propriety of returning the funds. The Missouri constitution doesn't allow public funds to be given to private concerns — either to Lay or his charities.

Tacky, eh? I suppose it would have been helpful, now that he's been found guilty on all counts.