Former Enron CEO pleads 'not guilty'
Friday, 20 February 2004Overnight in Houston the former chief executive of Enron was led into a courtroom in handcuffs and charged with 42 counts of securities fraud.
Jeff Skilling pleaded not guilty to the charges which could see him jailed for life and face fines of up to $80m. He's the 28th former Enron executive to be charged in relation to the scandal which is still reverberating through the US corporate world but he's the most senior. Only former chairman Kenneth Lay remains untouched, so far, by the ongoing investigation.
Ten of the counts against Skilling are for insider trading that generated $62.6m from Enron shares. Skilling sold these in 2000 and 2001 when the stock price was falsely inflated.
So far none of the indictments mentions Enron's former chairman Kenneth Lay, who was the biggest individual contributor to the election campaigns of President Bush.
