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Lay to join other Enron execs by invoking the Fifth

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Kenneth Lay appears before a Senate hearing Tuesday, he is expected to join a growing list of Enron executives who have refused to testify before congressional investigators about the energy company's collapse.

Lay, the former Enron chairman and CEO, will appear under subpoena before the Senate Commerce Committee where his spokeswoman has said he will, "under the instruction of counsel," invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Lawmakers have been anxious to grill Lay about just how much he knew about the company's financial status as its chief, especially in the wake of a damning report that says top Enron executives reaped millions of dollars from off-the-book partnerships while the company violated basic rules of accounting and ethics.

And while Lay likely won't testify, the man who chaired that report -- William Powers Jr., the dean of the University of Texas Law School -- will appear before the Senate and is expected to talk.

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In that 203-page report, the investigative committee commissioned by Enron's board of directors found that Enron executives "were enriched, in the aggregate, by tens of millions of dollars they should never have received."

Referring to Enron's questionable partnerships, the report said, "Many of the most significant transactions apparently were designed to accomplish favorable financial statement results, not to achieve bona fide economic objectives or transfer risk."

The committee reviewed more than 430,000 pages of Enron documents and interviewed more than 65 employees and others affiliated with the company over three months.

Enron's collapse is the subject of numerous investigations, including probes by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Enron's fall from corporate power -- it was listed as No. 7 on the Fortune 500 -- has been accompanied by accusations of shady accounting and the destruction of documents to hide those practices.

Last Thursday, four of Lay's colleagues -- including Andrew Fastow, who is accused of making $30 million from the business partnerships that exaggerated profits and hid losses -- invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

One of the executives who did testify -- Jeffrey Skilling, a former Enron CEO who resigned in August, four months before the energy giant filed for bankruptcy -- revealed little to the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

"On the day I left on August 14, 2001, I believed the company was in strong financial condition," Skilling said.

Lay was subpoenaed last week by the Senate Commerce Committee after he backed out of appearing voluntarily before congressional committees.