Skilling denies cheating, lying
HOUSTON — Brick by brick, prosecutors over nine weeks built their fraud and conspiracy case against former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling. With Skilling now on the stand, his legal team is trying to dismantle that effort in the same methodical fashion.
Using the 28-count indictment against his client as a guide, Skilling lead attorney Daniel Petrocelli on Tuesday began focusing on allegations that Skilling manipulated earnings at the former energy trading giant, misled investors with false statements and deliberately approved financial reports he knew were wrong.
“At a time when the government says you started this criminal conspiracy, is there any reason the company needed to start breaking the law to continue its stock growth?” Petrocelli asked as Skilling’s second day of testimony got under way.
“No,” Skilling replied.
In his testimony to jurors, Skilling described a financially strong Enron in mid-1999, when the government alleges the conspiracy began, with earnings up 29 percent for the second quarter that year.
“That’s a very, very significant growth,” he said.
The daylong testimony Tuesday lacked the emotion of the previous day. Skilling alternated between a professorial and executive mode in his comments from the witness stand, occasionally directly addressing prosecution objections to questions put to him before his own lawyer responded.
But there was no repeat of tears wiped away by relatives Monday as Skilling described personal struggles of balancing his family and professional life when he decided to leave the company in mid-2001 and how it then imploded late that year.
Instead, Tuesday was filled with details and denials.
He denied cheating, lying or engaging in misleading transactions.
In response to a series of rapid-fire questions, he also denied sending e-mails to anyone asking them to lie or cheat, denied talking to small groups to encourage cheating or lying, or of huddling in “a basement, a garage,” in Petrocelli’s words, where he could talk covertly with others about lying and cheating.
“I am absolutely positive,” Skilling said.