Skilling gets 24 years in accounting scandal

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HOUSTON -- Former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling, the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the decade, was sentenced yesterday to 24 years and four months in the harshest sentence yet in the case that arose from the energy trading giant's collapse.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake denied Skilling's request for bond and ordered him to home confinement, with a requirement to wear an ankle monitor. Judge Lake, who told the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should report to prison, suggested that he be sent to the federal facility in Butner, N.C., for his role in a case that came to symbolize corporate fraud in America.

Under federal law, criminal defendants can get two months a year shaved off their sentence for good behavior, David Irwin, a former federal and state prosecutor who practices in Towson, Md., told Bloomberg News. There is no parole in federal sentencing.

"By my calculations, he'll have to serve 20 years and four months," Mr. Irwin said. "That's a long time for a 52-year-old man."

Skilling was the last top former official to be punished for the accounting tricks and shady business deals that led to the loss of thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in Enron stock and more than $2 billion in employee pension plans after the company sought bankruptcy protection in December 2001. Skilling, insisting he was innocent yet remorseful in a two-hour hearing, is appealing.

His remaining assets, about $60 million, will be liquidated, according to an agreement among Enron employee attorneys, the company's savings and stock ownership plans, prosecutors and Skilling's legal team.

About $45 million will be put in a restitution fund for victims. The remaining amount will go toward Skilling's legal fees, said Lynn Sark, an attorney for the Enron Corp. Savings Plan and Stock Ownership Plan. The Justice Department allowed Skilling to set aside $23 million for his defense when he was indicted; he still owed his attorneys $30 million as of yesterday.

Skilling stood with his hands clasped below his waist, with attorney Daniel Petrocelli at his side. He gave no visible reaction to the sentence. After court adjourned, Skilling hugged Mr. Petrocelli.

Skilling's term is the longest received by any Enron defendant; former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow was given a six-year term after cooperating with prosecutors and helping them secure Skilling's conviction.

It falls just shy of the sentence imposed on former WorldCom Chief Executive Officer Bernard J. Ebbers, who received 25 years for his role in the $11 billion accounting fraud that toppled the company he built from a tiny telecommunications firm to an industry giant.