Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced on Monday to more than 24 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy in one of the biggest corporate scandals in US history.
"Crimes of this magnitude deserve severe punishment," Judge Sim Lake said when announcing the 292-month sentence.
"Today's sentence is a measure of justice for the thousands of people who lost their jobs and millions of dollars in investments when Enron collapsed," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.
"Jeffrey Skilling will now spend more than 24 years in prison for committing one of the largest frauds in the history of corporate America," Fisher said.
Skilling, 52, who had faced a possible 185 years in jail, showed little emotion as his sentence was handed down.
A jury convicted him in May of 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading.
The disgraced former chief executive will also forfeit about US$45 million in assets, including his home.
He had earlier told the court he planned to appeal his conviction stemming from the 2001 collapse of the Houston-based energy giant under a mountain of shady deals.
"I am innocent of these charges," Skilling said as a host of former employees looked on.
Skilling's sentencing closes the book on the major players in the Enron scandal, which epitomized corporate greed in the heady days of the Internet boom.
Enron founder Kenneth Lay, Skilling's co-defendant in their four-month trial, died of heart failure in July before he could be sentenced.
Lay's convictions on 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and banking violations was thrown out last week because he died before he could appeal the verdict.
Enron's spectacular collapse in 2001, then the largest corporate bankruptcy in history with more than US$40 billion in outstanding debt, rattled energy and stock markets. Thousands lost their jobs and savings.
Enron's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow pleaded guilty in 2004 and was the prosecution's most effective witness against Skilling and Lay.
He was sentenced to six years in prison last month.
Skilling was released on Monday to house arrest supervised by an electronic bracelet before he is to report to a North Carolina jail on a date yet to be determined.
Asked by reporters why he did not reach a plea agreement that could have saved him years in jail, Skilling said he could not admit to crimes he does not believe he committed.
"I'm sorry I can't do that," he said on the courthouse steps. "I am not guilty."
Before being sentenced, Skilling faced a host of disgruntled former employees.
"You should be ashamed," said Ann Beliveaux, an 18-year employee who lost her entire retirement savings of US$500,000.
"When things got bad, you jumped ship," she said, adding that Enron's collapse was "only because of your greed."
Kevin Hyatt, who worked for 17 years for Enron, said in the last five years of his employment he "witnessed a competitive, me-first culture." This, he said, was "actively cultivated by management."
FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus said the occasion served as a warning against malfeasance in the boardroom.
"Corporate crooks should beware, if you decide to use business coffers as your personal piggy bank at the expense of investors and employees, you risk loss of personal freedom," Burrus said in a statement.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS