Results tagged “jeffskilling”

Good morning, Houston. When it comes to politics, we suppose there's a lot to be said for the shock factor — which is why Brian Klock, a candidate for Congressional District 22, is getting some attention. Klock, one of 10 people vying for the Republican nomination for CD 22, has put up a billboard showing downtown Houston being destroyed by a huge explosion. "The Threat Is Real," the billboard reads. "Ask Brian Klock." And Klock's campaign does seem to center on being prepared to fight terrorism: According to his website, he wants to track foreign cargo entering Houston, keep a fighter squadron at Ellington Field and demand more federal anti-terrorism funding for the city. We can't wait for Shelley Sekula Gibbs' response billboard — except instead of an explosion, it'll be her glorious yellow hair lighting the skies over downtown. Ah, politics.

Good morning, Houston. We heard a few weeks ago about a bat infestation at TSU, but now there's something else happening in the halls of academia: a bee infestation at UH. It seems 100,000 of the industrious little critters have taken up residence in the walls of the Cullen College of Engineering, but rather than exterminate, the university is planning to move the bees to a wooded section of campus. Beekeeper Mike Knuckley will...

If you haven't yet seen Whitney Casey's (of Great Day Houston and CNN fame) new weekly Chronicle column "Relationships with Whit," then, by most accounts, you're pretty lucky. We usually leave hating on the Chron to other local blogs, but we couldn't help but notice some of the snitty reactions to Casey's column. From James Campbell's About:Chron blog: So the Chronicle has hired Whitney Casey to do a column on relationships? This is a woman...

Remember how Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's desks were being auctioned for charity on eBay? Well, when the auctions closed Saturday night, Skilling's desk had a new owner, but Lay's didn't: The high bid of $25,000 for the former Enron chairman's desk fell $1 short of the reserve price of $25,001, the Chronicle reports. Oh, the heartbreak of eBay! To refresh your memory, the two desks — identical, massive pieces of furniture designed by Gensler...

You remember when the E-shaped signs that used to identify Enron's headquarters sold for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, right? Well, if you missed the chance to blow your retirement fund on a big, shiny E, here's another opportunity to own a piece of the ill-fated energy company: The desks that once belonged to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are up for sale on eBay. Lay's desk and Skilling's desk were custom-designed by...

Remember former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's unusual stroke of good luck when he learned Monday that he wouldn't be sent to jail as scheduled? Well, scratch that: A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided yesterday that Skilling should report immediately to jail after all. Sucks to be you, Jeff.

Looks like former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling will have at least a bit longer at home before he has to report to a federal prison in Minnesota: Yesterday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals postponed Skilling's report date while it considers his request for bail while he appeals his convictions on 19 charges of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading in connection with Enron's collapse. It's a short-term reprieve for Skilling, and it could point to promising developments for him in the long term:

Weeks before he's set to report to prison, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling has agreed to the distribution of $85 million to former Enron employees, part of a series of settlements totaling $265 million for more than 20,000 workers trying to recover some part of their pensions. "Yes, it's over. Our clients are thrilled," Lynn Sarko, a lawyer representing former Enroners, said. "While they are grateful that some of their retirement money was recovered, it...

Another former Enron executive learned his fate — at least his short-term fate — in court yesterday: Richard Causey, the company's ex-head accountant, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his role in helping maintain Enron's accounting fraud. The sentence is 18 months less than the seven-year maximum Causey agreed to serve last year when he pleaded guilty to securities fraud, but it's far less than he could have ended up with had he gone to trial and been found guilty.

So Jeff Skilling had the next chunk of his life mapped out for him this afternoon: The former Enron CEO was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison, meaning he'll get out of jail when he's 76. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered Skilling to home confinement for a while — for how long, it's not clear: Lake asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should be sent to jail....

Five months after former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was found guilty of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, Skilling will learn his fate at 1 p.m. today in the federal courthouse at 515 Rusk Ave. And the hearing is open to the public — so hey, if you're having a slow afternoon, why not swing by?

So former Enron Chairman Ken Lay's criminal record is now clean, thanks to a ruling yesterday from U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that erased Lay's convictions on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection with Enron's collapse. Too bad Lay's not around to enjoy the freedom. In his ruling, Lake agreed with lawyers for Lay's estate who argued that the conviction should be erased and indictments against Lay dropped because of his death from...

This summer, about two months after former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors in connection with the Enron collapse, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake denied Skilling's request to have his conviction overturned. But never say Skilling is a quitter: Now, he's again asking Lake to overturn his conviction, this time based on a federal appeals court ruling. The ruling in question had to do with some...

Former Enron CFO Andy Fastow is scheduled to be sentenced this morning, and he might have some unwanted company at his hearing: U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt has invited former Enron employees to attend and talk about how Enron's collapse affected their lives. Wonder if he'll learn any new words?

The Chronicle is reporting that ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was arrested and accused of public intoxication in Dallas earlier this month — but he won't go to jail for violating the terms of his bond. Skilling was arrested in the early morning of Sept. 9 in the 3600 block of McKinney Avenue; he wasn't drinking at the time and didn't resist arrest. Public intoxication, a Class C misdemeanor, carries a fine of up to $500; Skilling got a $385 ticket and was briefly held in a city jail.

And the Enron legal saga goes on: A day after we learned that Judge Sim Lake approved a request from Lay's lawyers to substitute Lay's estate for Lay in court proceedings, the first step toward vacating the dead former Enron leader's conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges, Lay's estate attorneys filed a request today to erase the convictions and dismiss the indictment against Lay. But it looks like prosecutors aren't going to take that lying down: The filing included a sentence that said Lay's lawyer, Michael Ramsey, had "conferred with [prosecutor] Kathy Ruemmler, who indicated the government will oppose this motion."

Remember earlier this summer when Enron prosecutors said they would seek $183 million from former Enron execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling — money the government says is ill-gotten gains earned using fraud and conspiracy at Enron? And remember how Skilling complained about his $140 million share of that a few weeks later? Well, that might not have been such a good idea, it looks like: Since Lay is dead, the government has decided to ask Skilling to pony up the whole $183 million. Whoops!

Ex-Enron chief Ken Lay's lawyers took the first step toward getting his conviction vacated yesterday, filing a request with U.S. District Sim Lake that would substitute Lay's estate for Lay, who died July 5. The request would allow the estate to act on Lay's behalf, which would in turn allow the estate to move to dismiss Lay's indictment on charges of fraud and conspiracy in connection with Enron's collapse.

We imagine Jeff Skilling is somewhere drowning his sorrows in a Schlitz: Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake denied the former Enron CEO's request to overturn his convictions on fraud, conspiracy and insider trading charges. Skilling claimed the evidence presented in his trial earlier this year was insufficient, so his convictions on 19 of 28 charges should be dismissed. Well, nice try anyway, Jeff.

Prosecutors in the various Enron trials have been busy this week filing rebuttals to requests from former executives including Jeff Skilling, who asked for a new trial and the chance to interview jurors who convicted him in May.

Sure, today's the day between Ken Lay's dual memorial services, and we're still a least a couple of days away from Jeff Skilling beginning his legal wranglings. But that doesn't mean we have to be without Enron news: According to the Houston Press's new HouStoned blog, former Enroner Andy Fastow was seen trading in a coupon for free guitar strings yesterday.

Thanks to the Chronicle's Shelby Hodge, we have an idea of what Ken Lay's first memorial service was like yesterday. The Lay family barred media from the Aspen, Colo., service, which we suppose is why the AP story was relatively short on details. But Hodge talked to some people who attended, and she got a pretty good idea of what went on. Nearly 200 people attended the service, at which the Rev. Bill Lawson of...

Ex-Enron chairman Ken Lay's funeral arrangements have been made, but the state of his legal affairs remains up in the air — at least for now.

Details on Ken Lay's death are slowly trickling in, including early word that he did die of natural causes, according to preliminary autopsy results. That deals a blow (admittedly, a tiny one) to the conspiracy theories Houstonist has been hearing all day.

Federal prosecutors aren't finished with Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's assets yet: They filed a motion Friday asking for $183 million from the pair of former Enron executives — money prosecutors say came from fraud Lay and Skilling committed while they led Enron. The sum includes $140 million in stock sales, compensation and bonuses from Skilling and $43 million from a bonus and use of a company credit line from Lay. The motion says Lay and Skilling "were able to sell Enron stock and reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits, all while knowingly misrepresenting Enron's true financial condition to the public."

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. You can protest someone at his office, sure, but when the whistle blows at the end of the day can you follow him home? D.C. has sports fans, apparently, and elephants aren't really cut out for zoos. There's this trick where you can read information from...

Turns out Jeff Skilling has a plan to save his skin after all: The former Enron CEO has asked a judge to overturn his guilty verdict. Sneaky devil! We never would have thought of that.

. Here's the item from the NY Post:

If you didn't see Jeff Skilling's interview with The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, here's what you missed: He thought about killing himself, became resolved to live when federal prosecutors went after him, thinks he helped convict himself and maintains he's not guilty. "I've come to the conclusion that life is better than the alternative, which was not a conclusion that was real clear to me for a period of time," Skilling told the Journal....

Things aren't that easy these days for ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling: Not only has he been convicted of helping bring down a huge energy company, but now he can't get at some $60 million of his money. Skilling's lawyers are trying to change that, though, by asking the government to release the $60 mil — partly so he can have some spending money, but mostly because Skilling still owes his legal team millions of dollars.