Dec. 29, 2005, 3:06PM
Skilling Request to Drop Charges Denied
By KRISTEN HAYS AP Business Writer
© 2005 The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A judge rejected former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling's request to dismiss insider trading charges pending against him in a court opinion made public Thursday.
(snip)
On Wednesday Lake accepted a guilty plea to securities fraud from former top Enron accountant Richard Causey, who was go to on trial alongside Skilling and Enron founder Kenneth Lay next month.
Skilling faces 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors for allegedly knowing about or participating in schemes to manipulate Enron's finances so investors would believe a wobbly company was healthy. Lay faces seven counts of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly perpetuating the ruse after Skilling abruptly resigned in August 2001, less than three months before Enron went bankrupt in December that year.
(snip)
The indictment alleges Skilling sold $62.6 million in stock when he had information about Enron's finances that was unknown to investors. One of the counts pertains to a stock trade he made after he had resigned from the company.
The indictment alleges further that Skilling caused Enron to enter a series of deals and transactions with off-the-books entities that allowed the company to manipulate financial results by omitting money-losing assets from the company's balance sheet, manufacturing earnings and backdating documents to inflate investment values.
(snip/...)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/3554620.html(Free registration required)