Dallas ? When Deputy U.S. Atty. Gen. James Comey announced the indictment of former Enron Corp. executive Jeffrey Skilling on Thursday, Comey referred to Skilling as “the” guy at Enron.

So, where does that leave former chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay, the only person that Skilling answered to before Skilling left the Houston energy company in August 2001?

Prosecutors and members of a special Enron task force have slowly climbed the ladder as they unraveled what went wrong at Enron, at one time the nation’s seventh-largest corporation before its December 2001 bankruptcy.

In August 2002, Michael Kopper, former deputy to chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. The following month, former treasurer Ben Glisan entered his own guilty plea, receiving a five-year prison sentence.

Shortly afterward, prosecutors indicted Fastow, mastermind of the complicated financial dealings that eventually unraveled. Last month, Fastow and his wife Lea pleaded guilty to separate charges, and Fastow agreed to a 10-year sentence without possibility of parole.

After Fastow’s guilty plea, only the two Enron executives that outranked him had not been indicted. Now, there is only one, Lay.

After being taken Thursday to Houston federal court in handcuffs, Skilling pleaded not guilty to 35 wide-ranging counts charging him with wire fraud, securities fraud, securities fraud in presentations to securities analysts and of making false statements to auditors. He was released after posting a $5 million bond.

Also accused on many of the same counts was Kenneth Causey, Enron’s former chief accounting officer who was fired in early 2002.

‘Active’ investigation

At a Thursday news conference in Washington, Comey wouldn’t comment when asked what plans the Justice Department had for Lay or whether they would accept a plea bargain with Skilling to get information on Lay.

But Comey said the Enron investigation “is active, is open, is ongoing, and this hard work will continue.”

Dallas attorney Dan Boyd said the Skilling indictment undoubtedly was a direct result of the guilty plea from Fastow, who promised to cooperate with federal officials.

“Obviously, the prosecutors took a long time to get that. Now, he’s giving information that enables them to go higher. I would think that Lay would be the next target,” Boyd said.

He likened the Enron investigation to the Iran-Contra probe nearly 20 years ago, in which investigators lacked a cooperating witness at the center of any scheme.

“The transactions were very complex, very difficult to understand,” Boyd said, “and without someone like Fastow to help them, I think it’s very difficult to pin it on people higher up.”

However, noted Houston defense attorney David Berg said Lay might escape charges, despite his position at the top of Enron.

“I don’t think he will be indicted at this point, or they would have done it already,” Berg said.

Lay’s Houston lawyer and spokeswoman did not return calls for comment Thursday. The lawyer, Mike Ramsey, had a Jan. 15 news conference to say that Lay had trusted Fastow and felt betrayed when he learned of Fastow’s misdeeds.

Lengthy indictment

The indictment said Skilling between 1998 and 2001 received about $200 million from the sale of Enron stock and stock options, netting more than $89 million, and received more than $14 million in salary and bonuses.

Causey reportedly received $14 million from stock and stock opinion sales, netting more than $5 million, and received more than $4 million in salary and bonuses.

Skilling, chief operating officer and president at Enron, was promoted to chief executive officer in February 2001. But six months later, Skilling suddenly resigned, and Lay took back the CEO job he had given to Skilling.

The lengthy indictment names a number of other co-conspirators, but does not finger Lay, either by name or position.

Asked if that meant Lay was going to escape “scot-free,” Comey said prosecutors couldn’t charge anyone with a crime without sufficient proof.

“We have been working like crazy to find the facts and to punish those who are guilty,” he said.