Business

Less chill time for Mr. Skilling

Fallen Enron CEO Jeff Skilling saw more than 10 years shaved off his 24-year prison sentence yesterday after a federal judge in Houston approved a deal he cut with prosecutors earlier this year.

The disgraced former executive — who was convicted in 2006 of engineering a massive accounting fraud — could be a free man as early as 2017, when he is 63 years old.

In exchange for getting back a decade of his life, Skilling agreed to stop appealing his sentence. He has also promised to cease claims on some $40 million seized by the government for victims of the collapsed energy giant.

Victims, including Enron employees and stockholders, were invited to speak at yesterday’s resentencing hearing, but only one showed up to object.

“Jeff Skilling betrayed that trust to those employees and played a part in the financial collapse of an amazing company,” said Diana Peters, a former Enron employee.

Meanwhile, the federal courtroom in Houston was packed with Skilling supporters, including family members of former Enron Chairman Ken Lay, who died shortly after his conviction in 2006, according to reports.

Skilling also received hundreds of letters of support sent to the judge from inmates and other fans. The Harvard graduate has been teaching inmates Spanish in prison after learning to speak it himself.

Even Sherron Watkins, famous for blowing the whistle on Enron, seemed ambivalent about her former boss’s getting off easy.

“He’s paid a steep price,” Watkins told CNBC, referencing the deaths of his father and son while he was incarcerated.

Skilling’s youngest son, 20-year-old John Taylor “JT” Skilling, died from an apparent drug overdose in his Santa Ana, Calif., apartment in 2011. Skilling was not allowed to attend the funeral.

Meanwhile, Enron’s victims are poised to get paid years after the company collapsed in a massive accounting fraud.

Roughly $100,000 of the $40 million the authorities have seized will go to participants in Enron’s 401k plan, which was heavily invested in the company’s stock. The rest will go to former shareholders.

Skilling has been serving his sentence in a federal prison in Littleton, Colo.