Success Quote by Kenneth Lay

A single sentence that tries to launder culpability through grammar. Kenneth Lay’s “But I can’t take responsibility for criminal conduct of somebody inside the company” is built like a corporate firewall: start with “But” to signal reluctant honesty, then narrow the charge to “criminal conduct,” then shrink the actor to “somebody,” then bury it “inside the company” as if Enron were a weather system he merely observed.

The specific intent is legible: draw a bright line between leadership and illegality, as if the CEO’s job is strategy and vibes, not oversight. It’s a defensive maneuver aimed at prosecutors, shareholders, and the public at once: he’s not denying wrongdoing occurred; he’s denying that wrongdoing belongs to him.

The subtext is more revealing than the claim. “Take responsibility” is corporate dialect for accepting blame without admitting knowledge. It sidesteps the questions that matter in white-collar scandal: What did you know, when did you know it, and what incentives did you build? By framing the issue as one rogue “somebody,” Lay reaches for the classic “bad apples” story, a comforting fable that preserves the legitimacy of the institution and the status of the person at the top.

Context makes the sentence radioactive. Post-Enron, the public had learned how accounting tricks, off-balance-sheet entities, and a win-at-all-costs culture can be engineered from the executive suite downward. Lay’s line isn’t just an alibi; it’s an argument about power: that you can profit from a system you lead, yet remain morally weightless when the system crimes.