Enron’s Jeff Skilling May Get Decade Off Sentence in Deal
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins & Erik Larson - May 8, 2013 1:58 PM ET
Jeffrey Skilling, the convicted former Enron Corp. chief executive, may get out of prison in four years if a federal judge approves a deal proposed by prosecutors that would allow the payment of more than $40 million to victims of one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.
In exchange for having a decade lopped off his 24-year sentence, Skilling will drop continued litigation over his conviction, in which a jury found he spearheaded the fraud that destroyed the world’s largest energy trader. The agreement was revealed today in a filing in Houston federal court.
Skilling, 59, has served more than six years of his 2006 sentence for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading.
If U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of Houston approves the deal, Skilling could receive credit for time already served as well as additional credit for good behavior and completion of a substance abuse program in prison, according to his lead lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli.
That could put Skilling back on the street in another “four or five years,’’ Petrocelli said in a telephone interview.
The case is U.S. v. Causey, 04-00025, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston).
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net
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