Houston ? Like so many other ex-Enron employees suddenly left without a paycheck more than four years ago, Deborah DeFforge has moved on. She’s more caught up today than in the past.

But she’ll be among those watching today’s start of the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

“I plan to keep a pretty close eye on it, just out of sheer curiosity if nothing else, and closure,” said DeFforge, now a Houston real estate agent. “It will be good to finally see it come to fruition and move on with our lives.”

After a dozen jurors and four alternates are chosen from a pool of more than 100 candidates, the once-celebrated former executives will begin the journey that either will gain them freedom or decades in prison.

Enron’s December 2001 flameout was the first in a string of corporate scandals that spawned another string of prosecutions. The criminal case against the company’s former top two executives is the biggest to emerge from the rubble.

“The government’s prosecutions of corporate fraud will be judged based on the verdict in this case,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor. “If there is an acquittal, the government’s corporate fraud prosecutions will be deemed, at best, a modest success. To the extent the government is being tested, this is the final exam.”

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, in the final pretrial hearing this past week, advised participants to rest up for what is expected to be a four-month marathon.

Skilling, 52, faces more than 30 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors. Prosecutors allege he conspired with minions to hide Enron’s wobbly financial state from investors through falsely rosy public statements and misleading regulatory filings. He also is accused of selling more than $62 million in Enron shares inflated by the hype.

On Friday, prosecutors asked Lake to approve their request to drop four wire fraud counts against Skilling that had been related to charges pending solely against Richard Causey, former chief accounting officer. Causey was slated to go to trial alongside his former bosses until he pleaded guilty to securities fraud last month. If approved as expected, Skilling will go to trial facing 31 criminal charges.

Lay, 63, faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. The government alleges he perpetuated the ruse after Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001, less than four months before the company careened into bankruptcy in December that year.

Both have pleaded not guilty. Both insist Enron was not rife with corruption – this, despite guilty pleas obtained from 16 ex-Enron executives, including former finance chief Andrew Fastow and Causey.