Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay – above with his wife, Linda – disclosed hundreds of millions of dollars in quarterly losses and a surprise $1.2 billion writedown in shareholder equity six weeks before the company fell into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001, jurors in his fraud and conspiracy trial heard Monday on a tape of a quarterly earnings conference call.

But prosecutors contend he still held back some bad news from investors or wrongly described the losses as one-time events to give Wall Street false hope that business would improve, while he allegedly knew the company was in serious trouble. Lay is on trial alongside former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.