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(Photo: AP)
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The former chief executive was convicted on May 25, 2006, on 19 of the 28 counts he faced, including one count of insider trading, and acquitted on the remaining nine counts. Skilling was convicted along with former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.
Skilling, after again asserting his innocence and then listening to victims of the Enron collapse, was sentenced to 24 years, four months in prison, on Oct. 23, 2006. It was the harshest sentence yet in the case that came to symbolize corporate fraud in America.
Skilling was Chairman Lay's heir apparent until he suddenly resigned as CEO less than four months before the company shattered in scandal. He cited personal reasons for leaving the post. Skilling sold 1.3 million shares of stock for $70.6 million and transferred 2 million shares back to Enron from June 1996 to November 2001. He received $13.2 million in bonuses from 1997-2000.
Skilling testified twice before Congress in February 2002, and said he was unaware of any accounting problems. He remains a defendant in a lawsuit alleging he knowingly endorsed deceptive and misleading financial statements. An indictment was unsealed Feb. 19, 2004, charging him with 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, filing false statements to auditors and insider trading. On March 28, 2006, a judge dropped two counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud, leaving Skilling with 28 criminal counts against him.
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