KENNETH L. LAY

Birth date: April 15, 1942.

Career: Former chairman and CEO. Founded Enron in 1985 when his Houston Natural Gas merged with InterNorth in Omaha, Neb., and became chairman and CEO the next year. Stepped down as CEO in February 2001 when Jeffrey Skilling took over; resumed the role when Skilling abruptly resigned on Aug. 14, 2001. Resigned as chairman and CEO Jan. 23, 2002; resigned from board Feb. 4, 2002. Appeared before Congress in 2002 and invoked the Fifth Amendment. Alleged to have sold more than 4 million shares of stock for $184 million from 1996-2001. Received bonuses of $18.1 million in 1997-2000. Lives in a $7.4 million penthouse near downtown Houston.

JEFFREY K. SKILLING

Birth date: Nov. 25, 1953.

Career: Former CEO and director. Holds an MBA from Harvard and worked for McKinsey & Co. before joining Enron in 1990. Became president and chief operating officer in 1996, then succeeded Lay as CEO in February 2001. Resigned on Aug. 14, 2001, citing personal reasons. Testified twice before Congress in February 2002. Claimed no knowledge of intimate details of Enron's financial dealings. Sold 1.3 million shares of stock for $70.6 million and transferred 2 million shares back to Enron from June 1996 to November 2001. Received $13.2 million in bonuses 1997-2000. He remains a defendant in a lawsuit alleging he knowingly endorsed deceptive and misleading financial statements. An indictment was unsealed Feb. 19 charging him with 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, filing false statements to auditors and insider trading. He has pleaded not guilty.

ANDREW S. FASTOW

Birth date: Dec. 22, 1961.

Career: Former chief financial officer who pleaded guilty Jan. 14, 2004, to conspiracy in a deal that called for a 10-year sentence and for him to help prosecutors in the investigation. Free on bond. One of Skilling's first hires in 1990. Indicted Oct. 31, 2002, on 78 counts of wire and securities fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction for running various financial schemes designed to enrich him, his family and friends. Counts later increased to 98. Earned at least $45 million from LJM partnerships, investment vehicles named after his wife and two children. Pushed out of Enron on Oct. 24, 2001, the day after Lay expressed confidence in him to analysts. Alleged to have sold more than 687,000 shares of Enron stock for $33.7 million from June 1996 to November 2001. Pleaded guilty in January 2004 to two counts of conspiracy; agrees to cooperate with prosecutors and serve 10 years in prison when his help is no longer needed.

RICHARD A. CAUSEY

Birth date: Jan. 9, 1960.

Career: Former chief accounting officer. Handled Enron audits for Arthur Andersen LLP before joining Enron. When the LJM investments were proposed to Enron's board of directors in 1999, he and chief risk officer Rick Buy were assigned to review all Enron transactions with LJM. Fired Feb. 14, 2002, after release of an in-house report noting his failure to review the deals. Mentioned repeatedly by title in Fastow indictment as having a secret agreement with Fastow that LJMs would never lose money on deals with Enron. Told David Duncan, the top Enron auditor at Arthur Andersen, that Enron didn't like another Andersen auditor's objections to grouping investment vehicles known as Raptors to hide that two of the four that were bleeding cash. Alleged to have sold about 209,000 Enron shares for $13.3 million. Also received bonus payments of more than $1.5 million from 1997-2000 when Enron was inflating profits and hiding debt based largely on the partnerships he was supposed to police. Indictment charging him with conspiracy and fraud unsealed Jan. 22, 2004. Expanded indictment unsealed Feb. 19 to include new charges against Skilling and increased charges against Causey; 35 counts for Skilling, 31 counts for Causey. Has pleaded not guilty.

OTHERS:

Michael Kopper: Former Fastow lieutenant who pleaded guilty Aug. 21, 2002 to federal conspiracy and money laundering charges related to Enron's fall and agreed to give up $12 million in illegal profits. Kopper admitted he ran or helped create several partnerships that earned him and others millions of dollars, including kickbacks he funneled to Fastow, while hiding debt and inflating profits at Enron. Has not yet been sentenced and is cooperating with prosecutors. Declined to testify before Congress.

Lea Fastow: Wife of Andrew Fastow and former assistant treasurer at Enron. Pleaded guilty May 6, 2004, to a federal misdemeanor tax crime for helping her husband hide ill-gotten income from the government. She originally pleaded guilty to a felony tax crime in January, but withdrew that plea in April. She was sentenced to the maximum of a year in prison and ordered to surrender there July 12.

Ben Glisan Jr.: Added to an expanded Fastow indictment unsealed in May 2003. Glisan became Enron treasurer in March 2000, and earned $1 million in May of that year on a March investment of $5,826 in Fastow's Southampton Place partnership. Also negotiated for Enron in some of its transactions with Raptor. Worked with Fastow and Kopper in creating and running LJM2. Fired from Enron in November 2001. Indicted in April 2003 on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsify books and commit securities and wire fraud. He tried to cut a deal with prosecutors, but ended up pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy in September 2003. He was immediately sentenced to prison for five years and became the first former Enron executive to serve time. He later began cooperating with prosecutors.

Dan Boyle: Also added to an expanded Fastow indictment. Charged with conspiracy to falsify books and commit wire fraud related to Enron's deal to have Merrill Lynch buy three electricity-generating power barges. Boyle's lawyer says he had no authority to sign off on anything. Fastow promised Merrill that Enron would buy back the barges in 2000, which it did, booking a $12 million profit that was really a loan. Trial set to begin Aug. 18.

AIG has been thrust to the forefront of the credit crisis gripping financial markets by contracts known as credit default swaps.

These swaps pledge to cover missed payments on $579 billion in debt. AIG's swap portfolio lost $11.12 billion in value during the fourth quarter because decaying credit quality means the insured debt is less likely to be repaid.

AIG also lost more than $3 billion in its investment portfolio because of "significant, rapid declines" in the value of mortgage debt.

AIG lost $5.29 billion, or $2.08 per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with profit of $3.44 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2006.

For all of 2007, AIG earned $6.2 billion, or $2.39 per share, compared with $14.05 billion, or $5.36 per share, in 2006.

"AIG's results in 2007 were clearly unsatisfactory," AIG's chief executive, Martin J. Sullivan, said in a statement. "This was a challenging year in which the deterioration of both the U.S. residential mortgage and credit markets significantly affected several of our operations and investments."

Donn Vickrey, an analyst with Gradient Analytics, said AIG's management is under pressure to demonstrate it grasps the risks the company has taken.

The deterioration in the value of the swaps is more than double an estimate the company made just two weeks ago. At the end of the third quarter, AIG thought the portfolio of swaps had lost $352 million in value.

"They definitely seem to be right in the cross-hairs," Vickrey said. "They're insuring a lot of the risks that are rapidly becoming problematic."

AIG claims the losses on the portfolio swaps are only on paper because the debt the swaps protect is still stellar — just the market value of the contracts has fallen. As long as the insured debt does not go into default, the losses on the swaps will reverse over time, the company said.

The company's general insurance division posted a 22 percent decline in income to $2.02 billion. The division's mortgage insurance business, United Guaranty, posted a steep loss because flagging home prices have squashed the incentive and means for borrowers to repay home loans.

The life insurance division posted a 51 percent drop in profit, to $1.29 billion, because of bad investments.

January's sales increase followed a 0.4 percent decline in December and was contrary to Wall Street analysts' forecasts for a 0.2 percent decline. The surprise sales rise caused stock futures to jump on hopes it meant the United States had a better chance of skirting a recession.

Prices for U.S. debt securities fell while the dollar's value strengthened against other major currencies.

Excluding autos, January sales still rose 0.3 percent, reversing a 0.3 percent decline in December sales. Wall Street analysts were expecting a 0.2 percent gain in sales excluding autos.

"The data is clearly a surprise to the upside," said Omer Esiner, a market analyst with Ruesch International in Washington, D.C. "In the near term, it does ease some recession concerns."

Despite the higher headline number for sales, there were declines in many categories that implied consumer spending was being pinched. Furniture sales fell 0.5 percent in January, building material sales were down 1.7 percent and department store sales declined by 1.1 percent.

Many analysts think the slowing U.S. economy faces increasing risks of tumbling into recession and are closely watching for signs that consumers, who fuel 70 percent of national economic activity, will keep scaling back spending.

The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it will not appeal the dismissal of its indictment of Norwegian shipping group Stolt-Nielsen in a price fixing case.

Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania court threw out a criminal indictment against the company and two of its executives.

Judge Bruce Kauffman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who tossed out the indictment, said Stolt-Nielsen had cooperated with the Justice Department to dismantle illegal collusion among three long-haul carriers in exchange for a promised amnesty for prosecution.

The nation's shoppers -- taking advantage of deep discounts and expanded hours -- jammed stores over the last weekend before Christmas to try to grab a hard-to-find Wii or scoop up bargains on other items. But the spending surge may not be enough to offset what is shaping up to be a mediocre December for some retailers.

Based on early reports on Sunday, mall operators including Macerich Co. said they were pleased with the spending spree over the weekend, but they were still counting on Christmas Eve and post-Christmas business to meet holiday sales goals in what has turned out to be a nail biter of a season.

Meanwhile, even as shoppers continued to snap up flat-screen TVs, video game software and other gadgets, benefiting stores like Best Buy Co., the apparel business remains challenging, analysts said.

Ed Schmults, chief executive of toy merchant FAO Schwarz, which operates stores in Chicago and New York, said Sunday that pre-Christmas business is below expectations despite a sales surge this weekend.

"It's almost kind of worth waiting and shifting through the hustle and bustle," said Carly Moore, of Chicago, who was heading to Macy's on the city's State Street shopping corridor to scoop up some discounted clothing. But she was still frustrated that she couldn't find Nintendo's Wii game console, after trying at least five stores.

Valerie Glodowski of Stevens Point, Wis., who was with her boyfriend at Wisconsin's Wausau Center Mall, said she started holiday shopping two weeks ago and waited until the last weekend to finish out of sheer laziness.

"I am just winging it," she said.

Many merchants, which had struggled through a sluggish December after a strong start to the season, are counting even more on the final days before Christmas to make their holiday goals. With the three days prior to Christmas accounting for as much as 15 percent of holiday sales, there's a lot of business left on the table.

Macy's Inc. is keeping several of its stores in the New York metropolitan area, including its flagship store in Herald Square, open until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. About 1,000 of Sears Holdings Corp.'s 1,387 Kmart stores are open for 64 hours straight, beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday and ending at 10 p.m. on Dec. 24, for the first time since 2002.

With Christmas falling on a Tuesday, shoppers were enticed to wait even longer this season to finish their holiday shopping. A challenging economy -- higher gas prices and a housing slump -- also made some shoppers hold off until the final days before the holiday. Retailers routinely discount items deeper as Christmas draws nearer.

"The gas prices and car insurance ... is up. I would say I'm spending less and worrying more about it," said Sondra Newton, of Warren, Mich., who was at Oakland Mall in Troy, Mich., a suburb outside of Detroit on Friday. "I used to just take their (her children's) list and get the top ones on it. Now I have to think about 'what can I get at the best deal.'"

Nevertheless, Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers, is sticking with his December forecast for a 1.5 percent gain in same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year. That would mean same-stores sales for the November-December period would be up 2.5 percent from a year ago.

"I think when the dust settles, stores will have met expectations, though they are modest," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. He said he is still sticking with his 3.6 percent forecast for the November and December period, though he added, "some retailers will do OK, and others won't."

ShopperTrak is expected to release total sales for the week ended Saturday late on Monday.