There was Breaking News in the investment fraud world today, as Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of criminal charges.

Specifically, Lay was found guilty on six counts of fraud and conspiracy and four counts of bank fraud in a separate trial; Skilling, guilty on eighteen counts of fraud and conspiracy, one count of insider trading, but not guilty on nine other counts of insider trading.

However, far from putting an end to the Enron saga, this is just the end of one chapter. These two men, now convicted of criminal offenses, will only be sentenced in September. At question is whether they will go to prison then, or be eligible for bail pending their inevitable appeals. The eventual jail time could be long – each count of conspiracy and fraud carries a five to ten year sentence, and insider trading, ten years. These men, once at the pinnacle of corporate America, might well die behind bars.

This is only one piece of the Enron puzzle: The implications of this trial for those injured by the actions of Lay, Skilling, and their associates are more symbolic than tangible. Satisfaction at justice being done to those responsible for your loss is nice but it is only that – emotional satisfaction. The victims of Enron are due reparation as well, and the guilty verdicts in the criminal trial serve to underline this liability.

In August 2000, Enron shares hit their all-time high of $90 and the company was ranked the sixth largest energy company in the world and seventh largest company in the United States. Little more than a year later, in the fall of 2001, the company reported a loss, investigations began and scandals began to be revealed. The shares fell to less than a dollar and are now worthless.

This matters not only to billionaire corporate executives, lawyers and the government; it matters to millions of ordinary consumers in the United States and many other countries affected by the fraud. Employees of Enron – and there were thousands – lost not only their jobs, their source of income, but a large chunk of their retirement savings due to a heavy investment in Enron stock in the company's 401K retirement fund overnight. Literally. Anyone already retired from the company and receiving a pension was affected as well.

Those who owned shares whether directly or via funds which included Enron stock saw their net worth go down, and shares of other energy companies and large corporations became volatile. The uncertainty of how deep the fraud ran, whether isolated to Enron or tied to the entire sector, also caused stock losses. It's fair to say that the reverberations were felt throughout the economy, which was already weakened by the September 11 attacks on the United States.

So much equity was lost for pensioners and employees because their retirement savings were not properly diversified. Enron stock comprised as much as sixty per cent of some portfolios, much larger than the ten per cent maximum recommended. There were conditions surrounding employer matching contributions and withdrawals that did not work in employees' favor, where the investments of executives were not subject to these regulations.

In the wake of this scandal, laws concerning 401K programs are being reviewed, but employees are generally best off if they have a good understanding of where their savings go and what the rules are. These vary from company to company, but the general principle is to be as diversified as possible, with investments in a variety of stocks, bonds, and financial instruments. Those with small nest eggs, who tend to consider that their net worth doesn't merit much thought, actually have the most to lose (everything!) and benefit most from financial planning.

Companies closely associated with Enron, such as several banks and Arthur Andersen, once a major accounting firm, took a hit from the revelations of fraud. Three banks, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and some of their top executives eventually settled with the SEC to avoid prosecution, and that deal was finalized only one day before the Lay-Skilling verdict, May 24, 2006. Other settlements are expected soon. This money, over six billion dollars, is in a fund destined for plaintiffs of the class action lawsuit that awaits finalization of all the settlements and trials; however the loss estimated for this class-action is forty billion.

The number of those who lost their life savings will ever see reimbursement is uncertain, but the settlement money coming from the large corporations in question necessarily affects those associated with these companies, including their shareholders and employees all the way down the chain, and ordinary consumers who have dealings with these banks: the ultimate "trickle-down" aspect of this fraud keeps widening. It is difficult to get money from a company who has filed for restructuring, but when the company completely closes down overnight it is impossible.

The Enron effect went even further, though, and the extent may never be fully known. For example, you may remember the California energy crisis in 2000 and 2001; it appears that Enron had a hand in that too-- if not manipulating the energy market to cause shortages then certainly profiting from them. According to some memos and tapes released during the initial Enron investigation, there is evidence that the company engaged in unethical energy trades and sales, and possibly aggravated the crisis wherein some power companies nearly went bankrupt, and the State was compelled to lock in energy contracts at high prices. In these calls, Enron company employees discuss the market manipulation that drove up prices in California, even laughing at one point.

Enron settled these allegations in July 2005, and owes the State of California $47 million; California, Oregon and Washington are included as unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy, and estimates of their losses reach $1.5 billion; however Enron does not have the assets to pay these settlements and the final amount is likely to be a small fraction of the total.

Thus, anyone in California who paid an electricity bill during that time or suffered the consequences of the instability and brownouts is arguably an Enron victim as well. That's approximately 34 million people not included in this class action settlement. No compensation for the people who helped bloat the wallets of the Enron executives, of which only two are on trial.

Of course, it took more than just two men to pull off a fraud such as this. To date, nineteen former executives have been held responsible, by guilty plea or conviction, for crimes relating to Enron's collapse.

Lay and Skilling have the highest profiles because of their positions in the company and because they chose to fight their charges in court. Many others have struck plea deals which kept their publicity to a minimum, allowed them to cooperate with the investigation, potentially reduced their sentences, and in one case, allowed for a husband and wife, Andrew and Lea Fastow, to serve jail time in sequence for the sake of their children.

Even with the plea deals, the crimes and sentences are sobering when you consider they involve people formerly considered upstanding citizens and the ultimate success stories. In 2002 the first to plead, to money laundering and conspiracy, was Michael Kopper, a top aide. He has yet to be sentenced. The following year Ben Glisan Jr., a former treasurer, pled guilty to conspiring to commit fraud and is serving a five-year prison sentence. Andrew Fastow has a ten-year prison term to look forward to, and has forfeited $24 million in assets. The list goes on, with prison terms and heavy financial penalties for most.

Although the prison terms do not help those harmed by the fraud, they are intended to send a strong message to corporations. Executives of Tyco and other companies involved with corporate accounting improprieties are also facing years behind bars. Whether this example will serve as a deterrent to future crimes remains to be seen; if nothing else it has opened up the public's eyes to what can happen to them as a result of greed and dishonesty at the highest levels. However, most of the millions of people affected by the Enron debacle will never see a dime.

What the Enron experience has taught us; if nothing else, is that we are responsible for our own financial health and future because nobody – not even our own employer – should be blindly trusted.