A rogues' gallery of scammers and their sentences

Bernie Madoff's sentence of 150 years far exceeds the prison terms given to other high-profile figures involved in financial scams over the last two decades.

Here are some of the names from the rogues’ gallery of the corporate world and Wall Street, and their prison sentences, as compiled by the Associated Press and Bloomberg News:

• Jeffrey Skilling, Enron Corp.'s former chief executive, was sentenced in October 2006 to more than 24 years in prison for his role in the energy company's collapse. But he will be resentenced July 30 after an appeals court ruled that federal sentencing guidelines were incorrectly applied in his case.

• Kenneth Lay, founder of Enron, was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in May 2006. His conviction was vacated later that year, after his death.

• Andrew Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2004 and was sentenced to six years.

• Joseph Nacchio, former Qwest Communications CEO, was sentenced to six years after being convicted in 2007 on 19 counts of insider trading. He began serving his time in April, but has requested a new trial.

• Bernard Ebbers, former chief of WorldCom, was sentenced to 25 years in 2006 for his role in the $11-billion accounting fraud that toppled his telecom company.

• John Rigas, founder of cable television company Adelphia Communications, was convicted in 2004 on charges including securities and bank fraud. He is serving a 12-year term. In addition, he was indicted in 2008 on additional charges of tax evasion.

• Timothy J. Rigas, Adelphia's former chief financial officer, was convicted on the same charges as his father and is serving 17 years. He also was indicted on tax evasion charges in 2008.

• Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco International, was convicted in June 2005 on charges including conspiracy, grand larceny and securities fraud. He is serving a sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years.

• Mark Swartz, Tyco's former finance chief, received the same sentence as his former boss and has been imprisoned since 2005.

• Sam Waksal, ImClone Systems founder, was sentenced to seven years in 2003 in the insider trading scandal involving the ImClone drug Erbitux. He served five years and now is free.

• Ivan Boesky, the arbitrageur who was a central figure in Wall Street’s massive insider-trading scandal of the 1980s, served two years of a 3 1/2-year sentence. He was released in 1990.

• Michael Milken, the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond king who pleaded guilty to securities-law violations in 1990, was sentenced to 10 years. He served 22 months.

-- Tom Petruno

Top photo: Jeffrey Skilling. Credit: Pat Sullivan / Associated Press

Middle photo: John Rigas. Credit: Adam Rountree / Bloomberg News

Bottom photo: Ivan Boesky. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[elleneyegreen]

It's about time! All the others should have had the book thrown very hard at them too, then perhaps these disgusting practices might diminish. I cringe at the thought that we taxpayers now have to pay room and board for those who victimize us. All prisoners everywhere should have to grow and raise their own food - or starve. It will give them something to do like unburdening the law-abiding citizens.

[Mike]

I would love to know what Boesky is up to these days. Can't seem to find any information about him through Google.

[Jevation]

I'd like to see these felons stripped of all their belongings so when they come out of jail they have zero money or properties. To serve a couple of years in prison, and have a few million dollars available when they get out seems like a slap on the wrist. Depending on how old they are when they get out, they will succeed at whatever they set their minds to. These guys are greedy with an insatiable thirst for anything and everything that screams power. It is their nature to continue to break the law or crush others to obtain all the coin they can.

[martscan]

I'd be delighted to serve 22 months in a low security, camp "prison" and come out having $1B in ill-gotten gains, as Michael Milken did. Hell, I did 17 years with my first wife and had to pay $400K to boot!!