·Popular past posts ·

Martha Stewart went to jail for $220,000. So why should Jeff Skilling get off for 70 times as big a return on his insider investment — $15,500,000:

[Enron Task Force chief Sean] Berkowitz also quizzed Skilling about his attempt to sell 200,000 shares of Enron on Sept. 6, 2001, which was put off because his broker was concerned Skilling was still considered an insider after quitting on Aug. 14.

Berkowitz prodded Skilling about whether he was aware at the time of a letter questioning Enron's finances written by executive Sherron Watkins, $2.2 billion in pending writedowns or that the company was in jeopardy because its Raptor hedging structures could unwind if the share price kept dipping. All could be considered illegal inside information if used to dump shares.

Skilling said he knew about none of it, and that his understanding was that the Raptors would be in trouble only if the share price went below $20. He did sell 500,000 shares on Sept. 17 for around $31 each, citing the terrorist attacks.

Also, it's unseemly for an ex-CEO to sell shares out of concern for the 9/11 attacks. On 9/6, that is.

{ 4:45 PM }

.