Enron's Jeff Skilling May Get Decade Knocked Off Sentence

TEN YEARS EARLY

THE ART OF THE DEAL

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey Skilling, the convicted former Enron CEO, may get out of prison in four years if a federal judge approves a deal proposed by the Justice Department.

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Bloomberg

Jeffrey Skilling, the convicted former Enron Corp. chief executive officer, may get out of prison in as little as four years if a judge approves a deal with prosecutors over objections by victims of one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history. In exchange for getting as many as 10 years cut from his 24-year sentence, Skilling will drop his bid for a new trial and end litigation over his conviction. A jury found he spearheaded a fraud of as much as $40 billion that destroyed the world’s largest energy trader in 2001.

A sentencing agreement submitted yesterday calls for the former executive to give up all claims to $40 million in forfeited assets and be resentenced to 14 to 17 years in prison. The bulk of the reduction comes from an appellate ruling that takes nine years off because sentencing guidelines were improperly applied by Lake the first time.

Skilling, 59, has served more than six years of his 2006 sentence for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Given the nine years lopped off by the 2011 appellate ruling, and with the potential benefit of two more years off for good behavior and another year off for participation in a drug treatment program, Skilling could be released in 2017 or early 2018, according to his lawyer and the agreement.

Prosecutors won a forfeiture of more than $40 million of Skilling’s assets at trial, which have been held in reserve while the former executive continued to appeal his conviction. In dropping his bid for a new trial and any further appeals, Skilling agreed not to challenge the forfeiture, which will immediately free up the funds for Enron victims.

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NOW WATCH THIS ON ENRON

GREAT SCENE FROM FILM

Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room

Bethany McLean describes how Skilling flipped out when he heard about the story she was writing for Vanity Fair.

PERP WALK FLASHBACK

Jeff Skilling arrives at the Federal Courthouse in Houston, Texas, on April 3, 2006.

Comments

[john]

http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Jeffrey_Skilling.php

[DailyBail]

The Justice Department is breaking new ground here. They have gone from not prosecuting bank fraud, to letting previous frauds out of prison early.

[john]

They can kiss my ass.

[Sagebrush]

Im surprised, because fraud is not a crime anymore, they're not giving him a few million to make up for what he could have stolen had he not been sitting in jail.