After the Enron Trial, Defense Firm Is Stuck With the Tab--WaPo

SKILLING STIFFS HIS LAWYERS--MORE GOSSIP ABOUT THE BIG CROOKS

After the Enron Trial, Defense Firm Is Stuck With the Tab

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; D01



Los Angeles-based O'Melveny & Myers LLP, which has represented Skilling on both civil and criminal charges since 2001, collected what in a typical case would be a fat payday: $23 million from its client and $17 million more from his insurance policies.

But, true to form, Enron is still destroying financial expectations. Even before the trial began in January, Skilling's team of more than 20 lawyers, paralegals and support staff burned through those funds, leaving the law firm holding the bag for "multiple tens of millions" of dollars in unpaid fees and expenses racked up during the four-month trial, Skilling's lead defense lawyer said. While Daniel M. Petrocelli declined to provide an exact tally, one source put the price tag at more than $25 million on top of the $40 million O'Melveny already collected.

In the beginning, O'Melveny did not have to worry about how its high-profile client would pay his bills. Skilling exited the Houston energy trader in August 2001, with enough time to sell more than half of his remaining Enron stock before the company hit bottom and filed for bankruptcy protection that December. But, on the heels of his 2004 indictment, prosecutors put a hold on nearly $60 million in cash, brokerage accounts and other assets, including a $5 million Mediterranean-style Houston mansion and a $350,000 condominium in Dallas that Skilling bought to use when he visited his daughter, then a student at Southern Methodist University. Meanwhile, a settlement by board members depleted the company's insurance policies, closing off that avenue of recovery for lawyers hired by Skilling and Lay.

Within weeks, the government is expected to start legal proceedings to transfer Skilling's assets to its coffers, from which proceeds might be distributed to shareholders and other victims of Enron's collapse -- setting up a fight over the money.

Defense lawyers said they will urge U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III to release most of it to Skilling because jurors acquitted him on nine of 10 insider-trading charges. The defense argued in court papers filed this week that "only a very small portion" of the frozen assets is subject to forfeiture under the government's initial analysis.

"Jeff's not trying to get rich off anything," his lawyer Petrocelli said in an interview. "He's got child-support obligations, legal obligations from the sentencing and the appeal, and hundreds of civil lawsuits to defend. . . . He wants to take care of his family and his lawyers."

AND THE SLEAZE GOES ON. WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? MUCH MORE DETAIL IN ARTICLE


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502025.html?referrer=email

He's got to pay child support and other financial obligations. Gosh, what a shame.

I guess left holding the bag while the lawyers squabble over more millions.

they only justify their thieving.

:grr: