Enron's ex-CEO appeals conviction. (prosecutors' handling of corporate crimes on trial)

[maddezmom]

Enron's ex-CEO appeals conviction
Setbacks in court put prosecutors' handling of corporate crimes on trial

Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Almost seven years after energy giant Enron collapsed, court decisions have opened the door to new trials for some of the convicted corporate executives and threatened to hobble the Justice Department's efforts to pursue corporate-fraud cases.
In the wake of the scandal, prosecutors have pursued executives for covering up the company's financial bleeding and unloading millions of dollars in stock.

The Bush administration was under pressure to hold Enron executives accountable as more than 4,000 Enron employees lost their jobs and investors lost billions.

However, legal experts said the government's recent setbacks in court raised troubling questions about how federal prosecutors handled the high-profile cases and suggested that the Justice Department could face serious obstacles in other white-collar investigations.

Prosecutors won 18 guilty pleas, but some executives are being retried and the conviction of at least one has been thrown out because of a lack of evidence. Now the legacy of the Enron investigation is at stake in the appeal of former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling.

more:http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/1165318.html

[ck4829]

1. "Rich people can't go to prison! Waaaah!"