Quote:

the G-man said:
Sentences for Lay and Skilling likely to be drastic

    When Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron executives, are sentenced in September for their crimes, legal experts expect the stiffest prison terms permitted.

    Federal guidelines provide a formula by which Judge Sim Lake – who has a reputation as an aggressive judge – will arrive at the sentences. This formula includes: the number of convictions; their central role in fraud and conspiracy; the billions of dollars lost; and the multitudes affected.

    "This judge has shown a strong inclination to not just throw the book, but the entire bookcase, at the defendants,'' said Jacob Frenkel, a legal expert who has followed the trial.

    Mr Lay, 64, faces up to 45 years, and Mr Skilling, 52, faces up to 185 years. Mr Frenkel has worked out an aggressive sentence, based on the guidelines, and expects they each will be sentenced to 27-34 years in prison.

    However, Sheldon Zenner, a legal expert, said they could get time off for good behaviour and believed the prison conditions would not even be too bad.

    "They will be going to Club-Fed,'' he joked, referring to the prison camps some liken to Club Med, the holiday camps. "You usually meet your local politician, your bank president and, nowadays, your corporate CFO there.''

    This is because their crimes were not violent. The prison camps tend to be refurbished army barracks, without bars or cells. Prisoners wear casual clothes, not prison jumpers. And they are assigned light work, such as cleaning the grounds.

    However, legal experts warn that where the Bureau of Prisons sends prisoners often comes down to "bed space'', and they may end up in minimum-security prison rather than "Club Fed".

    Mr Zamansky, a legal expert, fully expects such a prison for the men, where they could well make license plates and perform other unskilled labour.

    Either way, Mr Lay and Mr Skilling will have plenty of time to mull over what went wrong at Enron.



Fuck you! I aint no Uncle Tom.

Bow ties are coool.