Former CEO Jeffrey Skilling: Different roads, but same bad end
A life of successes gave Skilling a confidence nothing could shake - until the jury ruled against him.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 26, 2006
HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling never saw himself as a potential felon.
"I'm very confident. I'm innocent," he said outside the federal courthouse in Houston a day before a federal jury began deliberating his fate along with that of Enron founder Kenneth Lay.
On Thursday, that jury disagreed. The panel convicted Skilling of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.
A subdued Skilling told reporters after the verdict he was disappointed, "but that's the way the system works."
During 7½ days of grueling testimony during the trial, and even as he learned he had been found guilty of most counts against him, Skilling appeared as self-assured as he did in the 11 years he spent at Enron before abruptly resigning more than three months before the company crumbled in December 2001.
Prosecutors said both Skilling and Lay lied to investors and employees about Enron's financial health when the company's success actually stemmed from fudged finances.
Skilling countered that the company was sunk by bad publicity paired with lost confidence in a stock market made skittish by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Skilling, 52, a self-described nerd, was born in Pittsburgh and raised in New Jersey and suburban Chicago. The son of a mechanical engineer who sold valves, Skilling excelled in public schools, and earned a full scholarship to Southern Methodist University. He later attended Harvard Business School and became a star at consulting firm McKinsey & Co.'s Houston office.
Lay embraced Skilling's vision of applying banking principles to the deregulated natural gas industry and enticed him to join Enron in 1990. Skilling led Enron's transformation from a staid pipeline company into a powerhouse trader that spawned wannabes throughout the merchant energy industry.
Lay ceded the CEO position to him in February 2001. Skilling quit six months later.
Prosecutors said he bailed out because he knew Enron was doomed. Later revelations of inflated profits and hidden debt caused many to look twice at Skilling, known at Enron as an intense, hands-on manager who inspired fear in demanding double-digit earnings growth.
Skilling testified he quit because he was worn out and had neglected his family. In 1997, he divorced the mother of his three children. He married his second wife in March 2002.
