Skilling's Temper Is Tested in Day 2 Under Fire

[WhiteTara]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/business/19enron.html
HOUSTON, April 18 — Jeffrey K. Skilling struggled to keep his temper in check on Tuesday, repeatedly accusing a federal prosecutor of not allowing him to answer questions more fully. But Mr. Skilling, one of two former Enron chief executives on trial here, managed to maintain his composure despite a few close calls during his second day of cross-examination.

The prosecutor, Sean M. Berkowitz, continued to pick away at the credibility of Mr. Skilling, who is accused of conspiring to defraud investors in Enron before it collapsed spectacularly in December 2001. Mr. Berkowitz pressed Mr. Skilling to acknowledge that he participated in schemes to manipulate results at the ends of quarters and was closely involved in moving troubled assets into a risky off-the-books financing structure called Raptors.
snip
"Let's move on," Mr. Berkowitz said.

"Let's not move on, let's talk about financial reports," Mr. Skilling said. "There have been no financial reports, this is an intracompany reserve estimate," he added, referring to Mr. Berkowitz's assertions about reserves. "How can you have a mistake on a financial report when the report is not coming out for another two months?"

Mr. Berkowitz quickly retorted. "I know it's difficult for you to sit here and answer questions," he said, turning away from Mr. Skilling. "And I know at times you overreact to people who are critical of the company. But we are going to move on."

[beam me up scottie]

1. Berkowitz so totally

ROCKS !!!



His Skilling smackdown yesterday was a thing of beauty.

[lavenderdiva]

15. ooh.... I missed what Berkowitz did to Skilling yesterday...

please share...

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. The headline makes the IDEA of Skilling showing his temper as someone

to be feared.

Fuck you, Skilling! Evil people don't get to be veiwed as US icons or demigods in my book...

[bluestateguy]

3. SKILLING SHOULD BE EXECUTED BY PUBLIC HANGING

And he should thank his lucky stars that he is even getting a trial. There are people like Jose Padilla who haven't even been given their day in court yet to contest the allegations made against him.

I'm sick of this bullshit kid gloves treatment that we give to white collar corporate crime. I am very honest here. I want revenge.

Skilling should be disposed of.

[savemefromdumbya]

4. you mean hung, drawn and quartered?

He should be in jail

[Yupster]

6. I'm an owner of 3,300 shares

of Enron. Do I still own it after it's gone bankrupt? I guess it doesn't matter except for the class action lawsuits.

Anyway, I don't have any problem with them putting up the best defenses they can. That's the way the system works, and I've been following the trial pretty closely in the Dallas paper.

[gratuitous]

5. Gee Jeff, money just falls out of the sky into your pocket, doesn't it?

This is what just kills me about these latter day robber barons. When their little three card monte game gets busted, they don't have the slightest idea how any of it happened. Why, they were barely even at the office the entire time all these terrible things were going on! They can't explain where all the money went. Well, yes, it would appear that several million dollars made their several million individual ways into their pockets and bank accounts, but golly, doesn't that happen to everyone?

Skilling should have to write a personal apology to every former employee screwed out of pension; every shareholder who took a bath on Enron stock; and every person who paid an extra nickel on their electric bill thanks to his scheme. He should deliver it in person, and spend a minimum of five minutes explaining himself to each of those persons, and sit quietly while they get to talk to him as long as they want.

If Skilling has a shred of human decency left, his heart would break before he got even a tenth of the way through that sentence.

[0007]

7. Skilling is a rat......he didn't know because he was out of town....

he didn't know because he didn't go to the Monday morning meetings,....he didn't know because there was a power failure.


Jeff Skilling & Ken Lay have lunch together

[WhiteTara]

16. and the prosecutor made quite a note about that

too. Yep, Jeffrey has such hubris he got on the stand. Now is he is going to jail in orange jumpsuits that don't fit and scratch and sleep on a bed with a lumpy mattress and 100 thread count sheets and an acrylic blanket. He will definitely lose weight on the terrible food of prison.

Oh, I can hardly wait. Oh, and meantime, he can obsess over every detail of his life and try to figure out how to spin it so that the jury won't just stand up and say in one voice "guilty"

[GregW]

8. Well ... ain't this a coinky-dink?

Here I am in a Las Vegas hotel reading about Jeff Skilling, when the last time I was here on business I got to sit in the audience and listen to him deliver the closing keynote address for a Bay Area software company. I got to see him deliver his now infamous "California and the Titanic" joke up close and in person.

Rot in hell you empty headed animal food trough wiper - I fart in your general direction.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Isn't he a hostile witness?

Can't his answers be legally confined to Yes or No?

[WhiteTara]

11. actually, he is the defendent

and the prosecutor is doing a great job at keeping him on track...on track to prison for a long long time.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. Yes. What I meant was...

...isn't the defendant a hostile witness while the prosecutor is questioning him?

[WhiteTara]

13. I know, I was just teasing you

but seriously, the prosecutor had such a wonderful slap down that it made Skilling look even more guilty than all the witnesses who said he was. And Lay, who refused to ever speak about this will now have to get on the stand or be judged guilty before they even leave the jury box.

Don't you just know that they are either taking very heavy sleeping pills or aren't sleeping much at all. I'll bet the family fights have increased, the drinking is up and in general their lives are miserable. Oh, and they are watching the lawyers suck that ill gotten money right on down the money hole.

[FiveGoodMen]

14. Ah. Gotcha.

Sounds like it's going well then!

[0007]

19. junior will probably pardon Kenny Boy but will he pardon Skilling?

[madmark]

17. depending on the question sometimes yes; but isn't this a criminal

trial and there are no prior depositions of the witness, Skilling, which one would have in a civil trial. When you have a deposition of a witness you can craft important, credibility damning questions that are yes or no and establish relatively tight control over the witness. If you do not have a deposition, its much harder. You do not know what their answer is going to be so you have to pull some information out with open ended questions first and then close back with some yes/no questions once you know where you can go with the thing.

[wordpix]

10. can't wait for this guy to go to jail, he helped steal $220 million from

our state (CT) under former Gov. "Con" Rowland. Same "defense" there. "Money disappeared? What money? I don't know anything about it, I'm the governor and $220 million was illegally loaned to Enron without my knowledge. Phone call records to Enron? What phone calls?"

These repukes are all con men, thieves and liars in expensive business suits. Still scum no matter how white their collars are.

[smacky44]

18. These guys practice being "angry." it's called winning thru intimidation.

Cheney is at the head of the class. The training is this: Become indignant, be arrogant, get angry, everyone else is expected to buckle into submission. Lately, it's only been working with the media.