cara ellison (Free subscription) | 07/04/2009
I love this! Jeff Skilling speaking about Frank Gehry on May 18, 2001: “The uniqueness of Frank Gehry’s work is the blending of the functional with the artistic to create an innovative product,” said Jeff Skilling, Enron President and CEO. “This is a quality Enron relates to every day as we question traditional business [...]
cara ellison (Free subscription) | 06/30/2009
This morning, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to the maximum of 150 years in prison for his role in a ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of billions. In every report I’ve read, Jeff Skilling is mentioned at least once. I have problems with the analogy for several reasons, but the most important one is [...]
cara ellison (Free subscription) | yesterday
In 2001, when Enron Corporation collapsed, shareholders were enraged that their bad investment decisions had resulted in a loss of their retirement plans, jobs, and to hear them tell it, their very lives. From 2001 until 2006, when Jeff Skilling was sentenced for his crimes, the myth of the broken Enron employee remained [...]
Houston's Clear Thinkers (Free subscription) | 07/02/2009
... then, does Madoff get a sentence six times that of [former WorldCom CEO Bernie] Ebbers or Enron’s Jeff Skilling?" I mean, really. Is the answer to that question all that difficult? Madoff turns himself in and admits from the outset that he was stealing money from investors for years by running a Ponzi scheme. Any wonder why he was hammered by the sentencing judge? Ebbers was essentially...
cara ellison (Free subscription) | 06/30/2009
Bethany McLean chimes in on the Madoff scandal and has a few more pearls of wisdom about Enron. And as I had mentioned at the beginning of this, after the sentencing of Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay in the Enron case, I wrote a piece for Fortune saying that the rules—the rules had changed now, and [...]
Sox First (Free subscription) | 07/01/2009
Much has been said about Bernard Madoff's 150 year prison sentence. The Los Angeles Times : his sentence is a lot shorter than what was handed out to the likes of Denis Kozlowski (8 to 25 years), Bernie Ebbers (25 years) and Jeff Skilling 24 years and 4 months).Madoff's attorney Lee Sorkin has described the sentence as "absurd". Appearing on the Today, and as reported in the , Sorkin...
Repman (Free subscription) | 06/30/2009
... apply to them. One needs only to think of, say, Bernie Ebbers, Bernie Madoff, Dennis Kozlowski or Jeff Skilling to prove the point. I think CEOs think social media is for the hoi polloi. They don’t need, or want, to dirty their hands by interacting with the masses. They already have their hands full with such irritants as analyst calls, CNBC interviews or annual meetings. Who has...
Sentencing Law and Policy (Free subscription) | 06/29/2009
... defendants as a new white-collar sentencing benchmark. Before Madoff, defendants like Ebbers and Jeff Skilling and others prominent white-collar defendants who were sentenced to around 25 years often served as the functional benchmark for sentencing debates for corporate fraudsters. In more than a few prominent white-collar cases, both the feds and defense attorneys would often compare...
