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Skilling begins his hard time

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 14, 2006

WASECA, Minn. - Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling quietly entered prison Wednesday, the final step in the fall of a man who once presided over one of Wall Street's biggest success stories.

Skilling embraced his wife a last time before walking into the low-security Federal Correctional Institution here to begin his 24-year, four-month sentence for fraud and other crimes in the collapse of the former energy giant.

Barring a successful appeal, and even if he earns time off for good behavior, the 53-year-old Skilling will be an old man at the end of his term. That's more than twice the length of the sentence of any other Enron executive.

Skilling and Enron founder Ken Lay were convicted in May on numerous counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and other charges in the collapse of the Houston firm, which led to the loss of thousands of jobs, more than $60-billion in company stock and more than $2-billion in employee pension plans.

A federal judge on Tuesday denied Skilling's request to remain free on bail pending his appeal.

Skilling, accompanied by his brother, Mark, and wife, Rebecca Carter, arrived at the prison in a silver Jeep Liberty. The group drove past a crowd of media without stopping, and walked into the prison. Skilling's family members emerged a few minutes later and left.

The low-security prison, which sits on the city limits of this town of 8,400 people 75 miles south of Minneapolis, has a low profile in the federal penal system.

Inmates at the prison have access to exercise facilities including a basketball court, running track and a pingpong table. Like most inmates, Skilling is likely to be required to work in prison labor jobs such as food service, plumbing and painting, where he would earn 12 to 40 cents an hour.

That's a far cry from what Skilling earned at the helm of Enron - more than $151.7-million from 1999 to 2001, the time span of the indictment.

Lay died in July of a heart attack before he could be sentenced, prompting a judge to vacate his conviction.

Lay "probably would have faced a similar fate if he'd been able to stand up for sentencing on the same day as Skilling," said Leslie Caldwell, a former federal prosecutor and one-time chief of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force.

[Last modified December 13, 2006, 23:33:31]