So now his family is free to enjoy 43.5 million stolen dollars. How nice. Or…..he will be able to enjoy it……wherever he is.

HOUSTON, Oct. 17 - A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the fraud and conspiracy conviction of Kenneth L. Lay, the former Enron executive, who died of heart failure in July while on vacation in Colorado.

Judge Simeon T. Lake III ruled that the conviction must be voided because Mr. Lay cannot pursue an appeal his guilty verdict.

The decision, which had been expected, prevents the government from trying to seize more than $43.5 million from Mr. Lay’s estate that prosecutors claimed he stole from Enron before it collapsed in 2001.

Mr. Lay, who was 64, died about six weeks after he and another former chief executive, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were convicted of spearheading the fraud that led to Enron’s collapse in December 2001.

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