The former CEO of Enron’s broadband division reported to a Louisiana prison on Tuesday to serve 27 months for securities fraud related to his role in the company’s 2001 collapse, his lawyer said.
Ken Rice (48) pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in 2004 and assisted prosecutors in other Enron cases.
Enron, once a high-flying energy company that tried to add broadband internet access to its portfolio, used bookkeeping tricks to inflate revenue and earnings and collapsed in a 2001 accounting scandal.
Rice, who was allowed to remain free on $3-million bond pending assignment to a prison, could have received a penalty ranging from probation to 10 years in prison.
At Oakdale federal prison, located in central Louisiana, Rice will join former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers, who began serving a 25-year sentence there in September. Ebbers was convicted of orchestrating an $11-billion accounting fraud.
Rice was the last of 15 former Enron executives who pleaded guilty to be sentenced. Sentences have ranged from one to six years.
Kevin Hannon, the former chief operating officer of Enron’s broadband unit, is due to start his two-year sentence at a federal prison in Bastrop, Texas, on Thursday, according to an order from US District Judge Vanessa Gilmore.
Hannon, who was COO of the broadband unit from January 2000 to June 2001, pleaded guilty in August 2004 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was convicted at trial and is serving a 24-year sentence in a Minnesota prison. Enron founder Ken Lay also was convicted at trial but died before he could be sentenced. – Reuters