With the recent news of the sentence given to ex-Enron executive Jeffery Skilling (24+ years in a federal prison) it is good to recall that in 2001, at the time of the Enron collapse, over 4,000 people lost their jobs and over $60 billion dollars in stock market value was lost and, finally, billions in retirement funds were lost as well. On the other hand (don't you wish lawyers and accountants had only one hand?), this is a seriously long sentence for someone with no prior convictions and since his lying seemed to be to keep the company generally afloat, not only to line his own pockets. Skilling is appealing his sentence to the same Court of Appeals which just overturned Ken Lay's conviction. Here is a solid article relating to Enron's collapse and Skilling's sentence. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=9&art_id=30111&sid=10528155&con_type=1&d_str=20061025 Here is another article, from a US source this time, which also fills in the picture on the impact of the Enron scandal on accounting laws and the impact of those new tougher laws on public companies. Perhaps one unindented consequence of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been the de-listing of smaller companies for American stock exchanges. Some of these companies have now listed themselves in London. "Former employee Dawn Powers Martin testified at Skilling's sentencing, calling him a liar and a thief. "While you dined on chateau briand and champagne, we were clipping coupons," she said. Skilling and Lay, the company's two most senior officers, used omissions, half-truths and outright lies to keep the myth of Enron alive and the stock price flying ever upward. And they got rich off the charade. " This Denver Post article also explains the vacating of the Lay conviction: http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_4543016 "Six weeks after a jury convicted Lay of conspiracy and fraud, the 64-year-old died this summer of an apparent heart attack while in Aspen. In dying, Lay got what he so fervently sought while alive - avoiding conviction. Earlier this month, a federal judge threw out Lay's convictions, saying precedent left him with no choice. Case law says that if a person dies before appeals are exhausted, the convictions can be vacated. The other disquieting development was that prosecutors could no longer pursue forfeiture through a criminal proceeding. They were expecting to reclaim $43.5 million from Lay so they could offer victims at least a modicum of recompense. Instead, prosecutors are left with the more difficult road of seizing Lay's assets through a civil lawsuit, which the government filed late Monday in Houston. " Shortcut to: http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/analysis/2157369/enron-effect Mike Copyright © All Rights Reserved