????提問環節中，有人問法斯托對安然前首席執行官杰夫?斯基林獲得減刑有什么看法。上個月，斯基林的刑期從24年減至14年。法斯托曾在審判過程中指證過斯基林，他對自己的前上司表示了相當大的同情。法斯托說：“進監獄很可怕。不可能覺得舒服。獲得優待什么的都是無稽之談……周圍都是暴力傾向非常嚴重的人，非常不穩定的人。囚犯們想方設法讓你覺得難受。但那并不是進監獄的壞處。進監獄的壞處在于不能和家人在一起。”（斯基林入獄后已經失去了父母和最小的兒子。）法斯托還說，減刑之后斯基林的刑期依然“具有毀滅性”。

????法斯托仍堅持認為，“安然并不需要在那個時候破產……安然其實不必破產，它可以經營下去。讓安然在2001年12月初破產的決定是在當年10月做出的”，也就是首席執行官斯基林辭職之后。這一點引起了很大爭議，但法斯托沒有進一步做出解釋。

????最后一個人問道：“許多人都在想這個問題。你在安然做的事及其對其他公司、養老金、股市以及人們的財富產生的影響讓你受到了很多人的抨擊。你怎么面對這些？對于譴責你作何反應？”

????法斯托低下頭說：“嗯，首先，我活該。接受這一點非常困難。我并沒有打算犯罪，當然也沒有打算傷害任何人。要知道，我在安然任職期間算得上是個英雄人物，因為我幫公司做每個季度的報表。那時我覺得自己是在做好事，還覺得自己很聰明。但實際上并不是這樣。”

????“每天早上醒來后，我就會拿出自己的囚犯號碼牌。今天我把它帶來了。它確保我能記住所有人，記住我的所作所為害了這么多的人。它鼓勵我設法做一些力所能及的小事來補償我的過失。”

????“我沒辦法把錢還給別人，也沒辦法為他們提供就業機會。我補償不了。但我就是得設法一點一點地做些彌補。希望到這里來可以讓我做的補救再多一些。”

????組織者曾擔心法斯托的報告會被打斷。而在回答了這個問題后，聽眾向這位安然前首席財務官報以經久不息的掌聲。接下來的15分鐘里，法斯托在詐騙審查師們中間四處走動并與人交談。有幾個人要求跟他合影，法斯托都禮貌地同意了。一名跟他合影的ACFE職員說她覺得要求合影有點兒怪，但法斯托看來很友善，讓她覺得是“歷史的一部分”。

????會議結束后，法斯托離開會場，準備乘飛機返回休斯頓。他拿到了一個手提袋，上面印著ACFE的標志。

????對此法斯托評價說：“實在是有點兒諷刺意味。”（財富中文網）

????本刊特約編輯彼得?艾爾金德和貝薩尼?麥克林共同撰寫了《房間里最聰明的人：安然令人贊嘆的崛起和不光彩地倒下》。

????譯者：Charlie

????Among his questions, Fastow was asked about former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's sentence reduction last month -- from 24 to 14 years. Fastow offered considerable sympathy for his former boss, against whom he had testified at trial. "Going to prison is terrible," Fastow said. "You're never comfortable. All the talk about 'Club Fed' is garbage ... You're surrounded by very violent people, very unstable people. Prisons work hard to make you uncomfortable. But that's not what's bad about going to prison. What's bad about going to prison is that you're separated from your family." (Skilling's parents and youngest son all died while he was behind bars.) Fastow added that even Skilling's reduced term is still "a devastating sentence."

????Fastow went on to insist that "Enron did not have to go bankrupt when it went bankrupt ... Enron should not have gone bankrupt. It could have survived. And it was decisions made in October 2001" -- after Skilling resigned as CEO -- "that caused it go into bankruptcy" early that December. That's a highly debatable point -- but Fastow did not elaborate.

????And then, the final question: "This is on a lot of people's minds. Many people vilify you for what you did at Enron, and the resulting effect on other companies, pensions, market share, people's fortunes. How do you grapple with that? How do you react to that condemnation?"

????"Um, well, first of all," said Fastow, looking down, "I deserve it. It's a very difficult thing to accept that about yourself. I didn't set out to commit a crime. I certainly didn't set out to hurt anyone. When I was working at Enron, you know, I was kind of a hero, because I helped the company make its numbers every quarter. And I thought I was doing a good thing. I thought I was smart. But I wasn't."

????"I wake up every morning, and I take out my prison ID card, which I have with me here today. And it makes certain that I remember all the people. I remember that I harmed so many people in what I did. It encourages me to try to do the little things that I can to make amends for what I did."

????"I can't repay everyone. I can't give them jobs. I can't fix it. But I just have to try bit by bit to do that. Being here is hopefully a little contribution to that."

????And with that -- despite the organizer's fears that Fastow's speech might be disrupted -- the former Enron CFO received a broad round of applause. For 15 minutes afterwards, he lingered, chatting with a crowd of the fraud examiners. More than one asked to pose for a photo with Fastow, who politely agreed. An ACFE staffer who did so said she felt a bit weird about the request, but that Fastow seemed nice and she felt he was "part of history."

????That over, the former Enron CFO departed for his flight back to Houston, carrying a tote bag he'd been given bearing the logo of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

????"Quite a bit of irony in that," Fastow remarked.

????Fortune Editor at Large Peter Elkind is co-author, with Bethany McLean, of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron.