On the Stand, Former Enron Chief Has Angry Words for Prosecutors

HOUSTON, April 13 -- Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling lashed out at prosecutors Thursday, calling the government's fraud case against him "a rewriting of history to accomplish certain objectives."

In his fourth day on the witness stand, Skilling grew indignant as he read aloud language from an indictment that accuses him of fraud, conspiracy and false statements designed to mislead investors about the health of the energy company.

"I'm sorry, but this is not true," he told jurors. "This is absurd."

Moments later, Skilling apologized and said he had to "calm down," only to go on and brand the charges against him "a total misrepresentation in my view of what happened at the time, and I believe it would be very easy for someone to confirm that." He added that he thought prosecutors "have purposely not looked at the facts."

Skilling, 52, told jurors that he was "devastated" by the company's December 2001 bankruptcy protection filing and the subsequent loss of jobs and retirement savings. "The company was brought to its knees, in my view unnecessarily," he said. "The horrific failure of the company has been made worse by these sorts of inaccuracies [in the indictment]."

His voice choked with emotion, Skilling continued, "There are a lot of people from Enron Corp. that will never recover from what happened."

As he spoke, fellow defendant and former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay fixed his eyes on the eight-woman, four-man jury. Skilling's brothers, one a lawyer and the other a Chicago weatherman, sat in the front row watching alongside his wife, Rebecca Carter.

The angry words punctuated an emotional day in which Skilling testified he had his hand firmly on the wheel of Enron and that he believed in straight, even blunt, talk. The picture of Skilling as a no-holds-barred speaker is intended to counter government allegations that he and Lay lied repeatedly to disguise mounting financial problems at Enron.

Skilling infamously blasted one stock analyst in a 2001 conference call, calling him a profanity for short-selling Enron shares, or betting that Enron's price would go down. He did not back away from that stance Thursday, even as he disclosed he himself had made bets that another energy stock, AES Corp. of Arlington, would fall in value.

He told the jury he had made a few mistakes in his waning days at the company. In all, however, he stuck to his argument that Enron was a "vibrant" business felled by market panic. Upon his departure in August 2001, he said, the company's performance was -- with few exceptions -- "as good as it gets," a view that diverges sharply from that presented by the government.

Members of the jury took copious notes and appeared to pay special attention when Skilling discussed the $152 million he earned at Enron between 1999 and 2001. He told the panel he was not motivated by greed because he was already worth $100 million when prosecutors say the alleged fraud began. He said he had few debts, owning outright a $4 million Houston home, a $350,000 Dallas condominium, and four cars including a 2000 Mercedes and a pair of Land Rovers that "don't work." The government has frozen the bulk of his assets.

Skilling also launched into an explanation of technical methods for valuing stock options and dispensed stock advice to the jury even as his lawyer tried to lead him through the most serious charges against him.

Skilling again asserted that he did not remember his bid to sell 200,000 Enron shares Sept. 6, 2001, an attempt he failed to mention to securities regulators when they questioned him under oath three months later. Earlier in the trial, prosecutors introduced taped phone calls between Skilling and his then-broker Charles Schwab.

"Quite honestly, I did not recall that," Skilling testified Thursday. He said he did remember another stock transaction he executed over the course of that phone call. Prosecutors are likely to seize upon that and other inconsistencies when they cross-examine Skilling on Monday.

The man who once boasted of leading the world's biggest energy company ended his direct testimony where it began: with a plea to be heard not only by the jury but also in the history books. "Maybe at some point you're tilting at windmills and lost causes and all that, but we are innocent," Skilling said.

Enron, he said, "is now used as a term for everything wrong. Not only is that a disservice, I think that is incorrect."

Outside the courthouse Thursday afternoon, defense lawyer Daniel M. Petrocelli told reporters that the jury had seen his client, unvarnished.

"Mr. Skilling is himself, was himself, and will always be himself," Petrocelli said.