The US Supreme Court has set aside part of Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling's fraud conviction, saying it was 'flawed' and unconstitutional.
'Because the indictment alleged three objects of the conspiracy, honest-services wire fraud, money-or-property wire fraud, and securities fraud,' Skilling's conviction 'is flawed,' the ruling said.
Skilling and Enron Founder Kenneth Lay hid company losses and hyped the stock's value while selling their own shares as the massive energy empire crumbled.
Thousands of people lost their jobs and life savings when Enron collapsed. The ensuing scandal undermined faith in corporate America and led to a massive stock market sell-off.
Followed by other major scandals - the collapse of WorldCom, excesses at Tyco - Enron led to significant regulatory changes.
The case was also one of the most complex involving corporate crime in US legal history and represented a high-profile test for the government's crackdown on corporate wrongdoing.
Lay died of heart failure in July 2006 before he could be sentenced and his conviction on ten counts of fraud, conspiracy and banking violations was thrown out because his death prevented him from appealing the verdict.
Skilling, who became the poster child for corporate malfeasance, appealed his May 2006 conviction by challenging the federal law that punishes executives who fail to provide 'honest services.'
His lawyers argued that the statute is 'vague and unenforceable' and does not require proof that the accused received a personal gain from the alleged fraud.
