Supreme Court Sides with Ex-Enron CEO Skilling
The Supreme Court has sided with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling in limiting the use of a federal fraud law that has been a favorite of white-collar crime prosecutors.
The court said Thursday that the "honest services" law could not be used in convicting Skilling for his role in the collapse of Enron. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her majority opinion that the ruling does not necessarily require Skilling's conviction to be overturned.
During arguments in December and March, several justices seemed inclined to limit prosecutors' use of this law, which critics have said is vague and has been used to make a crime out of mistakes and minor transgressions in the business and political world.
The court, at the same time, rejected Skilling's claim that he did not get a fair trial in Houston because of harshly critical publicity that surrounded the case in Enron's hometown.
The court in this ruling also sided with former newspaper magnate Conrad Black, setting aside a federal appeals court decision that had upheld Black's honest services fraud conviction. But as in Skilling's case, the justices left the ultimate resolution of the case to the appeals court.
The justices also threw out an appeals court ruling against former Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch, who is facing charges under the honest services law.
Thursday's ruling could affect the ongoing prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the convictions of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.
The government argues that both Skilling's and Black's convictions should be sustained, even with the court's ruling Thursday.
Lawyers for the two men say that the entire case against them should be thrown out.
Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors for his role in the downfall of the once-mighty Houston-based energy giant. The company collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001 under the weight of years of illicit business deals and accounting tricks. Skilling is serving a sentence of more than 24 years at a minimum security prison outside Denver.
Black, serving a 6 1/2-year prison term, and two other former executives were convicted of depriving the Hollinger International media empire of their faithful services as corporate officers. The company once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers across the United States and Canada.
Central to the case is $5.5 million that the defendants say were management fees they were owed and were trying to collect in such a way that they would not have to pay Canadian income tax. The government says the money belonged to the company's shareholders.
Weyhrauch wants charges against him dropped. Prosecutors allege that he failed to disclose he was in job negotiations with an oil-field operations company at the same time the state legislature was also considering an oil bill. But Weyhrauch says disclosure was not required by Alaska law. He wants the court to bar a federal honest services fraud prosecution without an allegation of a violation of state law as well.
AP The court said Thursday that the "honest services" law could not be used in convicting Skilling for his role in the collapse of Enron. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her majority opinion that the ruling does not necessarily require Skilling's conviction to be overturned.
During arguments in December and March, several justices seemed inclined to limit prosecutors' use of this law, which critics have said is vague and has been used to make a crime out of mistakes and minor transgressions in the business and political world.
The court, at the same time, rejected Skilling's claim that he did not get a fair trial in Houston because of harshly critical publicity that surrounded the case in Enron's hometown.
The court in this ruling also sided with former newspaper magnate Conrad Black, setting aside a federal appeals court decision that had upheld Black's honest services fraud conviction. But as in Skilling's case, the justices left the ultimate resolution of the case to the appeals court.
The justices also threw out an appeals court ruling against former Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch, who is facing charges under the honest services law.
Thursday's ruling could affect the ongoing prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the convictions of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.
The government argues that both Skilling's and Black's convictions should be sustained, even with the court's ruling Thursday.
Lawyers for the two men say that the entire case against them should be thrown out.
Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors for his role in the downfall of the once-mighty Houston-based energy giant. The company collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001 under the weight of years of illicit business deals and accounting tricks. Skilling is serving a sentence of more than 24 years at a minimum security prison outside Denver.
Black, serving a 6 1/2-year prison term, and two other former executives were convicted of depriving the Hollinger International media empire of their faithful services as corporate officers. The company once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers across the United States and Canada.
Central to the case is $5.5 million that the defendants say were management fees they were owed and were trying to collect in such a way that they would not have to pay Canadian income tax. The government says the money belonged to the company's shareholders.
Weyhrauch wants charges against him dropped. Prosecutors allege that he failed to disclose he was in job negotiations with an oil-field operations company at the same time the state legislature was also considering an oil bill. But Weyhrauch says disclosure was not required by Alaska law. He wants the court to bar a federal honest services fraud prosecution without an allegation of a violation of state law as well.
In most corruption cases involving defendants who are governmental officials, they are also charged with and convicted of bribery, conspiracy and the like. In those cases, this statute can still be used because a bribe or thing of value was also offered to them and accepted.
Justice Ginsburg, the ex-President of the ACLU, is writing the majority opinion and agreeing with Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas.
Justice Sotomayor, Justice Stephens, and Justice Breyer have a slight disagreement on one on the points, but agree with most of the points.
...but NO...somehow this is a Republican Court? You Left-Wing posters just continue to amaze me. Maybe, you should read at least a little of the decision to get the correct ideas regarding the case...including the CBS person that wrote the article?
But hey, a corporate criminal got a ruling in his favor so it's all good for you, regardless, right?
Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr managed to get President Clinton impeached in the House and not in the Senate over whether the President LIED about a private affair with Monica Lewinski and used every bit of coercion and threat he could muster while bolstered with a 60 million dollar prosecution fund from the Department of Justice authorized by Congress...
The STARR report on the Clintons had NO SUBSTANCE other than the private affair....
Can't catch a liar if Republican interests are involved.
Just ask Harriet Meiers...if she will 'out' the repubicanization of the Justice Department in firing US Attorneys that resisted pressure or were 'just not loyal' in resisting political moves to investigate democratic office holders prior to elections...
Forget Antonio Gonzalez, the Bush/Cheney stooge...and just go by the definitions in the Hague Conventions on the treatment of civilians and pows in time of war....and remember renditions, Abu Gharib, water-torture, Guantanamo and detainees....not to mention violations of privacy during the Foreign Surveillance Act and Patriot Act against all Americans... If we don't act to end tyranny by the government or those responsible...then there is no rule of law. That definition of "is" ....IZ real, and we have political manipulation of the masses rather than the interests of the people as provided for by the servants of the people elected to office.
Thanksgreed
He's got 24 years to think about what he has done to not only investors and employees of this failed company, but how he duped a lot of people. To turnover the conviction of this clown shows you how far out of touch the Supreme Court to day to day life and that their opinions only cater the the rich and powerful of this country. I know the Thurgood Marshall has got to be turning over in his grave with the level of incompetence at times on the court as Scalia and Thomas leading the fight!
Republicans are out of office and control nothing. The country is being destroyed by unemployment, loss of manufacturing, corrupt politicians, overspending and debt, and the worst destruction of the environvent in the history of our nation. Only a "Supreme Idiot" would vote for more democrats.
*****
Perish1, that was all accomplished by the Republicans during the previous administration, sorry. Obama may not be doing as much as we'd all like to rectify it, but he didn't start it.