On Friday, the prison sentence for Jeffrey Skilling the former CEO of Enron was cut by 10 years by a federal judge. This officially closed the book on one of the country’s most spectacular cases of white-collar crime in the past 20 years.
Skilling originally was handed a sentence of 24 years, the longest of any of the perpetrators at Enron. He has been in a federal prison since his conviction in 2006 and was facing release in February of 2028.
As part of a deal that was brokered between the defense and prosecutors over resentencing last month, Skilling agreed to end his challenge of his conviction as well as forfeit more than $42 million, which will be distributed amongst those who were victimized by the fraud at Enron.
Victims, who included former employees at Enron along with stockholders, were able to speak on Friday at Skilling’s resentencing. Over 4,000 employees lost work and some lost life savings, because of being tied to the investment retirement plans of the company, billions of dollars were lost by investors.
Skilling received his conviction for conspiracy, fraud, lying to auditors and insider trading.
Skilling has said all along that he is innocent, just like Kenneth Lay his predecessor CEO said. Lay founded Enron.
Lay was convicted as well in 2006, but died the same year, while vacationing, just months prior to his sentencing.
Skilling is being held in Houston at a federal jail during his court hearings. He is usually held in Littleton, Colorado at another federal prison.
