Enron’s Skilling To Challenge ‘Honest Services’ Law

The former chief executive of Enron Corp. is challenging the use of so-called “honest services” prosecutions in his 2006 fraud conviction.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The former chief executive of Enron Corp. is challenging the use of so-called “honest services” prosecutions in his 2006 fraud conviction.

Jeffrey Skilling’s lawyers will argue their client’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court this December.

Honest services prosecutions involve the federal government’s argument that a white-collar defendant committed fraud by stripping his company or the public of his honest services.

Using such arguments, Skilling was found guily, sentensed to 24 years in prison, and ordered to pay $45 million as a resuilt of his conviction for destroying the Houston-based energy company.

Skilling’s lawyers are to argue that the honest-services law is too vague and prone for abuse by federal prosecutors especially in private-sector cases.