The jury in the Enron fraud trial has begun deliberating verdicts for former bosses Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
The eight women and four men began deliberations yesterday after hearing one last plea from a prosecutor to convict the two men for a conspiracy to conceal the company's financial problems amid lies that painted a wobbly company as healthy.
"You get the final word in this historic case," Sean Berkowitz, director of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, told the panel. "You get to decide whether they told the truth, or they told lies."
Mr Berkowitz's was responding to pleas from the defence teams to acquit the men, citing overzealous prosecutors who criminalised innocent comments and normal business practices because they were bent on making someone pay for the suffering of those hurt by Enron's crash.
Mr Lay will be on trial again today before a US district judge, but without a jury, in a case related to his personal banking.
In that case, the government contends he obtained $75 million in loans from three banks from 1999 through 2001 and reneged on agreements not to use the money to carry or buy margin stock. He is charged with one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements to banks in the case.
The judge in this banking case, which is expected to last several days, plans to issue his verdict after jurors in the larger conspiracy case render theirs.
Enron, once the nation's seventh-largest company, entered bankruptcy protection in December 2001. More than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs evaporated when the company failed.
Mr Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors, while Mr Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy. Both face lengthy prison terms if convicted on all counts.