Jason Riemer Southern New Hampshire University PSY-310 Criminal Psychology Angela Meyer December 10, 2023
Summary Jeffrey Skilling was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and is the second of 4 children. Skilling spent most of his early childhood in New Jersey. His family relocated to Illinois, his dad was a sales manager and his elder brother worked as the chief meteorologist for the local news station. Skilling was convicted of multiple federal felony charges, including insider trading, securities fraud, and falsifying corporate accounting statements to auditors. Skilling was a gifted student and the second of four children. Skilling attended West Aurora High School Illinois. Skilling received a full scholarship to attend Southern Methodist University, graduating with a degree in applied Sciences. He completed his MBA from Harvard in 1979. Skilling began working for Mckinsey & Company in their energy and chemical consulting practices culminating to become one of the youngest partners and Mckinsey. In 1990, Skilling left Mckinsey to work for Enron Corporation as the chief executive officer of Enron Finance Corporation. He climbed the corporate ladder and became the chief operating officer and enjoyed being the second most powerful person in the Enron Corporation. Skilling was a respected leader by his team members and his antisocial behavior was instrumental in persuading employees to invest all their earnings in Enron stock. In the height of the California energy crisis, Skilling submitted his formal resignation, citing "personal reasons" for his decision. In 2001, Enron company stock plummeted to an all-time low, Skilling was accused of selling nearly $60 million of his shareholder stake in the company resulting in Enron filing for bankruptcy. Enron executives realized the end was coming so they froze employee stocks accounts while he cashed in $116 million of his own stock. This left the employees with no way to recover their losses. Enron recorded predicted profits as actual gains to inflate its stock price. Skilling abused
his power and status to manipulate shareholder information and put his own financial interests above his employees and failed to accept responsibility for his ethical misconduct. Skilling surrendered to the FBI in 2006, he was found guilty and was fined $45 million and sentenced to 24 years, and 4 months in prison - a conviction considered to be one of the harshest in United States white-collar crime history. In 2013, a federal judge reduced Skilling's sentence by a decade; as part of the deal, Skilling dropped the remaining appeals and turned over $45 million in restitution. Skilling was released in February of 2020 from a minimum-security prison in Alabama to a halfway house in Texas. My hypothesis is that Skilling's motivation for committing these crimes was Rotter's theory, he engaged in unlawful acts because wanted to be rewarded in the form of power, material things, and living status. He interpreted the situation and selected what he considered to be the most effective behavior under the circumstances. Crime Assessment A comparison of white-collar crimes (antitrust offenses, securities fraud, mail fraud, false claims, credit fraud,