January 25, 2002 - Former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter is found dead in an apparent suicide. February 12, 2002 - Lay invokes his Fifth Amendment right before the Senate Commerce Committee.

His risk management work in 2001, on behalf of Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, closed an Enron trading floor, one of many events that led to the fall that year of the once-might pipeline company.