Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling finished his eight days of testimony in his own trial yesterday, saying his experience since Enron started its downward slide has made him wish he never ran the company, which was the seventh largest in the nation before it collapsed. "It's been a tough six years, it's been a really hard six years," he told reporters Thursday.
Skilling answered a few final questions from his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, Thursday morning, denying that Enron illegally stashed money in reserves to boost earnings and arguing that the company was not exposed to high trading losses. The final bit of questitoning came from prosecutor Sean Berkowitz, who asked Skilling again about his investment in Photofete, an online photo-sharing company run by Skilling's ex-girlfriend that did $450,000 worth of business with Enron in 2001. Berkowitz asked Skilling about two $10,000 gift checks he gave the ex, Jennifer Binder, when the two were dating in 1997 and 1998. Berkowitz accused Skilling of back-dating the first check to get around IRS gift guidelines, but Skilling said he "typically overpaid" his taxes and the IRS hasn't found any wrongdoing on his part.
Thursday closed with several witnesses speaking on behalf of Skilling and former Enron Chairman Ken Lay. Skilling's ex-wife, Sue Lowe, said she didn't sell $14 million worth of Enron stock on Oct. 4, 2000, on Skilling's request, as prosecutors had alleged. "We sold the options because we were nervous about the stock market," Lowe said. Another witness was Carol Whalen, the widow of Enron Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter, who shot himself to death in January 2002. Whalen said Skilling and Baxter had considered a plan to raise money for the failing Enron in late 2001, but they eventually abandoned the idea.
Also taking the stand on Skilling's behalf was Robert Clayton, a former Houston fire chief who hired Skilling to analyze the fire department in 1985. Clayton said Skilling urged the department to install defibrillators on fire trucks and dedicate more resources to EMS: "I never lost a fireman and never had a major injury. I attribute that to the trust I had in Jeff," Clayton said.
The next major witness in the trial will be Lay, who is expected to take the stand Monday. Defense attorneys said they'll need about two days to question him, which means Lay's testimony could wrap up before the end of next week.
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