NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ex-Enron Chairman Ken Lay surrendered to authorities Thursday and pleaded innocent to charges that he lied to investors and the public about Enron's financial condition in late 2001.
After being released on a $500,000 bond, Lay with his lawyers and government prosecutors held separate news conferences to tell their versions of the Enron story.
Following are some highlights:
On Enron's collapse
Robert Mueller, FBI Director: "The collapse of Enron was devastating to tens of thousands of people and shook the public's confidence in corporate America."
Ken Lay: "I continue to grieve, as does my family, over the loss of the company and my failure to be able to save it. But failure does not equate to a crime." As former CEO, he said he "accepts responsibility for Enron's collapse" but denies "any wrongful or criminal activity."
On how it happened
Andrew Weissmann, director of the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force: "Rather than come clean and tell the unvarnished truth about Enron, Lay chose to conceal, distort and mislead at the expense of Enron shareholders and employees -- people to whom he owed a duty of complete candor."
Michael Ramsey, Lay's lead attorney: "He (Lay) did his best to meet those problems that developed. He didn't have any idea of the depth of the problem until probably after we were into bankruptcy."
On Enron employees and investors
James Comey, Deputy Attorney General: The government is committed to be tough on white-collar crime. The latest action on indicting Lay showed that "no one is above the law, that no scheme is too complex or too fancy to be beyond the long arm of the law."
Ramsey: "He lost a fortune; his family lost a fortune. He can certainly feel the pain of those who lost money in it. He will feel that until the day he dies."
On Andrew Fastow
Ramsey: "The Andy Fastow group...had done things that were ill-conceived, had misled the board of directors, had misled upper management. And you just can't operate with a thief in the chair of CFO."
Lay: "The worst mistake was in trusting somebody in the chief financial officer job."
Government officials declined to comment on Andrew Fastow on Thursday. When asked what role Fastow's cooperation played in the Lay indictment, Comey said he "can't comment on the evidence." Both Comey and Weissmann said the evidence will come out at trial.
On Ken Lay's trial
Christopher Wray, Assistant Attorney General of the justice department's Criminal Division: "Kenneth Lay is charged with abusing his powerful position as chairman of the board and CEO and repeatedly lying in an effort to cover up the financial collapse that caused devastating harm to millions of Americans."
Lay: "I want a speedy trial. I hope it will begin by early September this year...Not only are we ready to go to trial, we are anxious to prove my innocence.
On Ken Lay's indictment
Linda Chatman Thomsen, the Securities and Exchange Commission's deputy director of enforcement: "Mr. Lay is being charged, not for where he sat, but for what he did. Mr. Lay is today a defendant, not because he was a disengaged figurehead, but rather because he was an all-too-engaged participant in the fraud that was Enron."
Lay: "Everyone should be innocent until proven guilty."
-- Reuters contributed to this report
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