The high court declines to review appeals case by Adelphia founder John Rigas and his son, who a jury previously found guilty of fraud. WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court
rejected on Monday an appeal by Adelphia Communications Corp
founder John Rigas and his son Timothy of their conspiracy and
fraud convictions.
The justices declined to review a ruling by a U.S. appeals
court in New York which upheld the pair's convictions on 22 of
23 counts of conspiracy and securities and bank fraud.
A jury found the father and son guilty in 2004 of the
charges that accused them of concealing loans and stealing
millions from the cable operator.
John Rigas, formerly Adelphia's president and chief
executive officer, was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years in prison,
while Timothy Rigas, the former finance chief, was sentenced to
20 years. They began serving their prison terms last year.
In the appeal, defense attorneys argued that federal
prosecutors were required to prove that John and Timothy Rigas
had violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or call
an expert accounting witness in order to convict them of
securities fraud.
The attorneys also argued that the reversal by the appeals
court of the bank fraud convictions on count 23 for John and
Timothy Rigas required the reversal of their bank fraud
convictions on count 22.
The Supreme Court rejected the appeal without any comment
or recorded dissent.
After the Enron and WorldCom cases, Adelphia was one of the
U.S. Justice Department's highest-profile corporate fraud
prosecutions in recent years. The father and son were accused
of looting the company to pay for personal land deals and
vacation homes.
Adelphia was the fifth-largest U.S. cable firm before its
2002 collapse. Its cable system assets have been sold to
Comcast Corp and Time Warner Inc.
(Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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