Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling pauses to answer questions as he leaves court after being sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in federal prison on Oct. 23. AP PHOTO

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on Oct. 23 denied Skilling's request for bond and ordered him to home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor. Lake, who told the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should report to prison, suggested the 52-year-old be sent to the federal facility in Butner, North Carolina, for his role in a case that came to symbolize corporate fraud in America.

"His crimes have imposed on hundreds if not thousands a life sentence of poverty," Lake said.

Skilling, insisting he was innocent yet remorseful in a two-hour hearing, was the last top former official to be punished for the accounting tricks and shady business deals that led to the loss of thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in Enron stock and more than $2 billion in employee pension plans after the company imploded in 2001.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 28, 2006
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