Supreme Court Rejects Latest Appeal by Former Enron CEO
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal of his 2006 conviction on conspiracy and securities fraud charges.
The court without comment declined to review a 2011 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, which said that the Houston federal jury that convicted Skilling in 2006 had been presented with overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt, Reuters reports.
The appeals court had also found that any error committed by the trial judge was “harmless.”
Skilling, who headed the once-giant Houston-based energy trading company until its collapse in 2001, was convicted on 19 counts, including securities fraud, conspiracy, making false statements to auditors and insider trading. He is currently serving a 24-year sentence in federal prison.
In an earlier ruling, the Supreme Court had sent the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration after narrowing the reach of the so-called honest services fraud law, invalidating one of the theories used by prosecutors to convict Skilling.
But the 5th Circuit reaffirmed the conviction, saying the verdict would have been the same even if the invalidated theory had not been used against Skilling at trial.
