Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling were found guilty Thursday in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

Lay was convicted on all six counts against him, including conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, and faces up to 45 years in prison.

Skilling was found guilty of 19 out of 28 counts of conspiracy, fraud, insider trading and making false statements. Combined, these carry a maximum sentence of 185 years. He was not convicted on the remaining nine criminal counts.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11 and both are free on bail, each having managed to secure a $5-million US bond.

Skilling's bond prevents him from leaving the continental United States, but Lay's bail conditions are more severe. The Enron founder must:

• Stay in either Colorado or the Southern District of Texas;
• Avoid contact with any victim of the offence charged;
• Report to pre-trial services;
• Not own a firearm; and
• Not use alcohol excessively.

Both men were accused of repeatedly lying to investors and employees about Enron's finances before its spectacular December 2001 collapse into bankruptcy.

Lay and Skilling denied any wrongdoing and attributed the former energy giant's failure to bad publicity and lost market confidence.

In a separate trial, Lay was also convicted of illegally using money from $75 million US in personal loans to buy stock. He faces a maximum of 120 years in prison, in addition to the 45 years for the corporate trial.

The panel of eight women and four men reached their verdict in Houston on Thursday -- the sixth day of deliberations in the blockbuster criminal case that emerged from the collapse of what was once America's seventh-biggest company.

"We fought a good fight and some things work, some things don't," Skilling said in a brief statement outside court during which he thanked his family and his lawyer.

"We're going to have to go back and think this thing through. Obviously I'm disappointed but that's the way the system works."

Lay made a separate statement, saying he was "shocked" by the jury's decision and denied any wrongdoing.

"I firmly believe I'm innocent of the charges against me as I have said from day one, and I still firmly believe that to this day," Lay told reporters.

"We're going to stand behind him,'' his lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said."As I told him, we've just begun to fight."

Corporate greed

CTV's Washington Bureau Chief Tom Clark said that, in many respects, this was a verdict on corporate greed in America and a period of history.

"The destruction that Enron created in the American and Canadian economy was absolutely enormous," he said.

Three of Canada's six-biggest banks took billions of dollars in charges for their liabilities in related lawsuits.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) took the biggest hit with an annual loss of $32 million in 2005. It slashed its executive ranks by 15 per cent and cut 900 other jobs. A third-quarter loss of $1.91 billion followed -- the biggest in the bank's 138-year history.

Royal Bank and TD also were hit with charges related to their respective Enron-related litigation, but their exposure was considered minor in comparison with CIBC.

Enron's collapse in 2001, which sent the company into bankruptcy and cost thousands of employees their jobs and billions of dollars in savings, came after it was revealed that the company's booming profits were in fact the result of illegal accounting tricks.

The firm's auditor, Arthur Andersen, was forced out of business following the collapse as it was seen as having colluded in the accounting practices.

Lay and Skilling's 16-week fraud and conspiracy trial began with jury selection on Jan. 30.

The trial follows four years of investigation by the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force and is a major win for U.S. prosecutors intent on sending a message that corporate America must clean up its act.

Speaking after the verdict, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty praised members of the Enron Task Force, saying they had done "a great service to the American people."

"Enron has become the leading symbol of corporate scandal ...this verdict encourages us to continue to combat corruption wherever we find it," McNulty told reporters.

Lay and Skilling "perpetrated an elaborate scheme to mislead investors about Enron's true financial picture. No one is above the law ...we will continue to pursue relentlessly this type of corruption."

The convictions bring to 19 the number of Enron executives who pleaded guilty or have been found guilty of crimes for their part in the company's collapse.

Enron's former chief finance officer, Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty to his part in the scandal in 2004 and agreed to testify against his former bosses. He paid fines totalling $23 million US and received was jailed for 10 years.

With files from The Associated Press