Former Enron CEO Submits Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that it will consider former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal concerning his infamous 2006 fraud conviction following the collapse of the Houston-based energy company. Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $45 million after being convicted for conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors.

Skilling’s case joins former media mogul Conrad Black’s case as the second Supreme Court case involving the prosecution of high-profile executives. Black was formerly the Hollinger International chairman until he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for fraudulently taking millions of dollars from his company.

Both of the disgraced executives plan to challenge the “honest services” prosecutions, which were tactics by the federal government that argued that the defendants committed fraud by not giving the public honest services. Critics of the honest services prosecution tactics state that the law is extremely vague and broad, giving prosecutors plenty of room to apply the law to a wide range of conduct problems. Prosecutors have suggested that the Skilling and Black cases may limit the scope of the honest-services law for future cases.

Enron (Image: Flickr)