In the annals of corporate crime, few can match in size and complexity the conspiracy, deception and fraud committed by Enron. Almost no one could understand the company's sprawling web of businesses, let alone its accounting, yet almost everyone admired it. In the wider business world, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and other architects of this corporate house of smoke and mirrors were hailed as geniuses.

But the "smartest guys in the room," as Lay, Skilling & Co. came to be known, found their match in the special Enron Task Force created by the federal government to investigate the company. After four years of sifting through millions of pages of documents, interviewing hundreds of witnesses and conducting a trial that lasted 56 days, prosecutors were vindicated last week by the guilty verdicts on six counts of conspiracy and fraud against Lay and on 18 counts of conspiracy and fraud and one count of insider trading against Skilling.

The verdicts are the most important victory for the task force, which has brought criminal charges against 33 people, with 16 pleading guilty to a variety of crimes. They also are a reminder of the vital role the federal government has played in holding accountable those responsible for the wave of corporate corruption of the late 1990s and shaken confidence in the U.S. financial markets.

As Lay and Skilling await sentencing, it's worth remembering the utter devastation that Enron left in its wake. The firm's collapse erased billions from investors' portfolios; it cost thousands of people their jobs, their life savings and retirement plans; it led to the demise of Arthur Andersen, an icon of American business in its own right; and it even played a nefarious role in California's energy crisis.

None of those ravages will be erased by Lay's and Skilling's jail sentences, no matter how harsh. And little will be recovered through a flurry of civil suits that have been filed against Enron.

But there's no better deterrent against corporate crime than the spectacle of those who were at the helm of the most notorious criminal corporate enterprise in recent years being held accountable for their misdeeds.