When Tom Skilling, chief meteorologist at WGN-Ch. 9, talks about the criminal fraud and conspiracy trial of his younger brother Jeffrey, who was chief executive of Enron Corp., the subject foremost on his mind is their parents.
Their father, Thomas, 83, suffered a stroke and massive head injury about a year ago when he fell on a sidewalk in Aurora. This occurred just after learning that his son would face the humiliation of being paraded past photographers on his way to a Houston courtroom where a date would be set for his trial.
For the three months following the stroke, Thomas Skilling was kept on life support before being transferred to an assisted-living center in Batavia. Their mother, Betty, 81, fell soon after and broke her wrist, apparently exacerbating a spinal condition.
“I will always believe to the day I go to my deathbed that this, all of my parents’ health problems, was brought on by the stress of all of this,” Tom Skilling said in a phone interview minutes before delivering his noon weather report on Thursday. “This has been the most painful thing this family could ever go through.”
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Words rush in bundles when Skilling talks about the impact Enron’s bankruptcy and the subsequent indictment of his brother has had on his family, as well as those of his younger twin siblings Mark and Sue, 49.
Skilling’s voice fluctuated as he moved rapidly through recollections of his family’s “very middle-class, typical” upbringing in Aurora, the thrill that accompanied his brother’s acceptance to Harvard Business School and then the day-to-day shock of hearing Jeffrey’s name routinely cited as a symbol of corporate greed.
“My world changed that night my father had the stroke,” said Skilling, 54, who is one of Chicago’s most recognizable news personalities. He has broadcast local weather reports for 29 years and edits the baiduhai’s daily weather page. Both WGN and the baiduhai are owned by Tribune Co.
“It had already changed with the indictment, but it changed again. The tentacles of this whole thing have spread into our family in ways I could never have imagined.”
Jeffrey Skilling, 52, is expected to take the witness stand in two weeks and defend himself against 28 criminal counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy. Federal prosecutors allege Skilling and co-defendant Kenneth Lay, Enron’s former chairman, lied about Enron’s deteriorating financial condition in order to prop up the company’s stock price and cash in on millions of dollars in compensation.
Prosecutors say that from 1999 to 2001, Skilling was paid more than $151.7 million by Enron.
No-show at trial
Tom Skilling said he hasn’t attended the trial and has no plans to be in the courtroom when Jeffrey is called to testify. Their youngest brother, Mark, a lawyer who lives in Turkey, has been in Houston for months helping Jeffrey’s legal team. He often attends the trial.
Skilling said that Mark speaks frequently with the rest of the family to provide updates about the proceedings and their brother’s spirits. Mark Skilling didn’t return a phone call for comment.
The last time Tom Skilling saw his brother was in late February 2005, when Jeffrey came up to Chicago immediately after their father’s stroke, Tom said. Three days later, he returned to Houston for his court appearance.
“I haven’t talked to Jeff since then, but I leave voice mails and tell him that we’re worried about him, that we love him, and that we support him 100 percent,” Skilling said. “When I talk about all of this, I really lose it, so I don’t think I would be any good to my brother to be down there. I don’t know how he’s gotten through this. It’s just been awful.”
The Skillings moved to Aurora when Tom and Jeffrey were teenagers. Their father had left a job in New Jersey to take a similar position selling large industrial valves for Henry Pratt Co., a manufacturing company.
While Tom stayed local, landing a weather-forecasting job at an Aurora television station, Jeffrey received a scholarship to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Afterward, Jeffrey went on to Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker scholar, a distinction given to those who graduate in the top 5 percent of their class.
After being hired by McKinsey & Co., Jeff did consulting work for a Houston gas pipeline company called Enron, and in 1990 was hired by Lay to head the company’s newly organized finance division.
“I have full confidence in my brother, and I believe that whatever went on down there …” he said, his voice, full of emotion, jerking to a stop. “Listen, Jeff’s life hangs in the balance here, and my prayers are with my brother.”
In the four years since Jeffrey Skilling testified before Congress about Enron’s bankruptcy, he reportedly has spent many days secluded in his 9,000-square-foot, Mediterranean-style home in Houston. Tom says his brother regularly battled alcoholism and that his marriage to his second wife and his relationship with his two teenage sons and college-age daughter has often been tested. Jeffrey, he said, has since stopped drinking.
While media reports often characterize Jeffrey as arrogant and intimidating, Tom said his brother “has a self-deprecating sense of humor. He just doesn’t take himself nearly as seriously as some of these clips portray him.”
Much of Jeffrey’s depression, Tom said, was tied to his belief that friends, former co-workers and ex-Enron employees didn’t accept his explanation that he resigned from Enron in August 2001 for personal reasons, and that he had no knowledge the company’s finances were a veritable house of cards.
Desire to testify
Tom Skilling said his brother very badly wants to testify so he can directly explain his role at Enron and why the company fell so quickly into disarray.
“I absolutely believe he hasn’t had a chance to tell his story,” Skilling said. “I think this will be his first opportunity to tell us all what happened down there, because I’m sure he has spent these years trying to figure it out himself.”
Jeffrey Skilling, according to his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, says the fault of Enron’s bankruptcy lies with its former finance chief, Andrew Fastow, who has admitted stealing millions of dollars from the company and agreed to serve a 10-year prison sentence. In his opening argument, Petrocelli told the court that when investors, credit agencies and Enron’s trading partners learned in fall 2001 that Fastow had funneled a fortune into his private bank account, they excoriated the company, triggering its downfall.
“I’m not a businessman, I’m a weather forecaster, so I really have no special insights into what’s going on in the trial,” Tom Skilling added.
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Their father, he said, continues to struggle with speech and memory. Their mother follows the trial, and they often talk about it with his sister.
Since moving to a senior center, their parents no longer receive phone calls in the middle of the night from people saying they will be glad when Jeffrey goes to jail for the rest of his life, Tom said.
“I know a lot of people were hurt by this, but my parents had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I guess this is just a backdrop to what families have to go through.”