JURIST - Paper Chase: Skilling reaches settlement agreement in Labor Department civil lawsuit

[JURIST] The US Department of Labor [official website] announced a settlement agreement [press release] Thursday with former Enron [corporate website; JURIST news archive] CEO Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profile], concluding the DOL's civil suit against him. The agreement provides that Skilling "will drop his opposition to a previous $85 million settlement, waive his right to benefits from Enron's pension plans and be permanently barred from serving in a fiduciary capacity to any employee benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the future." According to the DOL:

The settlement acknowledges that Skilling is already subject to an order of forfeiture obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice's Enron Task Force. That order, entered Oct. 23, 2006 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, requires the establishment of a $45 million restitution fund for victims of Enron-related fraud, including plan participants and securities investors. The Labor Department's settlement provides that, if Skilling's convictions are overturned or vacated and the restitution fund is dissolved, Skilling will still pay $2.5 million to the participants and beneficiaries in the company's savings and employee stock ownership plans plus $500,000 in penalties to the department.

So far, more than $220.8 million has been recovered for the pension plans from Enron, its directors, officers and fiduciaries. The agreement must still be approved by a federal judge before becoming final.

Skilling, convicted [JURIST report; verdict backgrounder] in May on 19 counts of conspiracy, insider trading, and securities fraud, was charged [final redacted indictment, PDF] with providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron filed bankruptcy in late 2001. He was sentenced [JURIST report] to 24 years in prison in October. AP has more.