Former Enron CEO Skilling gets 24-year sentence
Updated Mon. Oct. 23 2006 4:47 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A judge sentenced Jeffrey Skilling to 24 years in prison for his role in one of the biggest financial scandals in U.S. history.
During the sentence announcement held Monday in Houston, Texas, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake placed Skilling under a home confinement order complete with ankle monitor.
He told the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should report to prison. Lake didn't recommend a date, but he did say Skilling should be sent to a federal facility in Butler, N.C.
Skilling, 52, professed both remorse and his innocence.
A jury convicted him in May on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors. He was acquitted on nine counts of insider trading.
Jurors decided Skilling and Enron founder Kenneth Lay repeatedly lied about Enron's financial health when they knew false accounting hid debt and inflated profits.
Skilling faced the music alone before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. Lay died from heart disease on July 5. Under Texas law, his death wipes out his convictions on 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in two separate cases.
His term is the longest received by any Enron defendant. Former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow got a six-year term after helping prosecutors convict Skilling.
Before Skilling's sentencing, victims of Enron's 2001 collapse were allowed to address the court with their stories about how the collapse of the company affected their lives.
Enron's implosion wiped out thousands of jobs, more than US$60 billion in market value and more than US$2 billion in pension plans.
"The people who have been harmed by the bankruptcy have very strong feelings about the subject," Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling's attorney, told The Associated Press.
"But that does not shed much light on the reasonableness of the sentence Mr. Skilling should receive."
At least 10 people signed up to speak at the hearing, including an attorney for the employees' savings and stock plans.
Skilling has said no fraud has occurred at Enron other than that committed by a few executives who took millions of dollars in side deals. It was bad press and poor market confidence, he said, that brought the company down.
Prosecutors have also asked that Skilling turn over nearly US$183 million, an amount they claim he pocketed during Enron's collapse.
The U.S. government had divided that amount between Skilling and Lay, but Lay's death has left that amount solely on Skilling.
Former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz says "in theory," Lay's death should have no impact on Skilling's sentence.
However, Mintz adds that Skilling is now ''standing alone,'' and ''there will certainly be pressure to make an example'' of him.
With files from The Associated Press
