MAKING HIS APPEAL TO A HIGHER COURT!
Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, convicted for his role in the once might energy giant’s collapse, took risks when he ran the company but they were always for its benefit, his attorney told an appeals court Wednesday.
His well-intentioned actions negate his convictions, which rest on a legal theory that Skilling deprived Enron of his “honest services” and put his own interests above those of the company, defense attorney Daniel Petrocelli told a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But prosecutors argued Skilling’s actions were dishonest and contrary to the needs of the company’s shareholders and its financial stability. The appeals court was not expected to rule Wednesday on Skilling’s appeal to have his conviction overturned. Skilling was convicted in May 2006 on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors for his role in the collapse of Houston-based Enron, once the nation’s seventh-largest company.
Skilling, who is serving a 24-year sentence in a federal prison in Minnesota, was not present during Wednesday’s arguments. But his wife and siblings were there.
