Supreme Court Decides Skilling Case

In an offshoot from the collapse of Enron Corporation, the Supreme Court has ruled that the conviction of Jeffrey Skilling for conspiracy to commit "honest-services" wire fraud must be reversed. However, it rejected his contention that he should have been granted a change of venue. The Supreme Court ruled that in order to bring a criminal charge for deprivation of honest services, the defendant must have received bribes or kickbacks from a third party which caused him to deprive his employer of honest services. Merely engaging in self-dealing is not sufficient to invoke the criminal penalty. The opinion can be found here. United States v. Skilling, 561 U.S. ____ (6/24/10).