Word is starting to spread that Jeff Skilling might not have to serve out the 24 years to which he was sentenced after his trial. Over at the Conglomerate blog, Christine Hurt lifts the following sentence out of the Fifth Circuit's December 12th order denying Skilling bail: "Our review has disclosed serious frailties in Skilling's conviction of conspiracy, securities fraud, and insider trading, difficulties brought by a decision of this court handed down after the jury's verdict, as well as less formidable questions regarding the giving of a jury instruction on deliberate ignorance."
Hurt says this could all indicate that Skilling might end up serving a lot less time.
So, why was he denied bail? Well, even if the Fifth Circuit thinks that the counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and insider trading are vulnerable on appeal, there are still five counts of false statements to auditors. The time to be served on convictions standing after an appeal would have to be less than the duration of time between December 12, 2006 and the appeal. So, the Fifth Circuit might be saying that much of the conviction may be reversed, but there could still be six months to a year to serve at the end of the day. Well, that's a lot different than 24 years. Remember that when the Fifth Circuit sua sponte released the Merrill Lynch bankers William Fuhs, Daniel Bayly and Robert Furst from prison pending appeal the bankers had already served one year and had been sentenced to 37- and 30-month sentences.
She goes on to wonder why more wasn't made of this at the time the order was issued, joking that she's going to file the entry under "How Did I Miss This?" Well, as much as we hate to toot our own horn, she wouldn't have missed it if she was reading DealBreaker, which mentioned the "serious frailties" the very next day.
Re-reading the Fifth Circuit's Denial of Skilling's Bail Pending Appeal [The Conglomerate]
Posted by Olivier Schreiber , Feb 15, 2007 7:47PM
I hope Skilling gets out.
He did nothing wrong and all these whiners who lost their pensions would not have had them in the first place if it weren't for Skilling making ENRON succesfull in the beginning but they were greedy like anyone and left all their eggs in the golden basket.
Go Skilling!
Posted by Kyle Sullivan , Feb 17, 2007 7:43AM
I used to work in the Financial Analysis group of Portland General Electric.
I wrote a statement that my best friend carried to the White House in Washington DC on the day that Robert Gates was confirmed as Secretary of Defense.
(( http://www.prismsgroup.com/Media.Set/Related.Enterprises.Set/Federal.Government.Set/12-18-06---Polished_White_House_Statement_FINAL_VERSION.rtf __
Posted by Kyle Sullivan , Feb 17, 2007 7:43AM
I used to work in the Financial Analysis group of Portland General Electric.
I wrote a statement that my best friend carried to the White House in Washington DC on the day that Robert Gates was confirmed as Secretary of Defense.
(( http://www.prismsgroup.com/Media.Set/Related.Enterprises.Set/Federal.Government.Set/12-18-06---Polished_White_House_Statement_FINAL_VERSION.rtf __
Posted by Olivier Schreiber , Mar 02, 2007 11:43PM
I hope Skilling rots in prison.
We throw blacks in prison for 24 years for stealing a lot less. This guy stole and destroyed so many lives. He's a monster and created monsters by spreading greed like a contagion. His traders didn't give a shit if they destroyed the savings of California's grandmas who couldn't afford the manipulated energy prices.
Guys like him give capitalism, deregulation, and free markets a horrible name.
Fry the devil
Posted by Olivier Schreiber , May 01, 2007 2:05AM
The March 2 post is not from me.
Skilling did not steal or destroy lives nor did he manipulate energy prices.
The California so-called deregulation was anything but one and is the root cause of the price distortions.