US Justices Reject Appeal by Adelphia Founder, Son

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Courtrejected on Monday an appeal by Adelphia Communications Corpfounder John Rigas and his son Timothy of their conspiracy andfraud convictions.

The justices declined to review a ruling by a U.S. appealscourt in New York which upheld the pair’s convictions on 22 of23 counts of conspiracy and securities and bank fraud.

A jury found the father and son guilty in 2004 of thecharges that accused them of concealing loans and stealingmillions from the cable operator.

John Rigas, formerly Adelphia’s president and chiefexecutive officer, was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years in prison,while Timothy Rigas, the former finance chief, was sentenced to20 years. They began serving their prison terms last year.

In the appeal, defense attorneys argued that federalprosecutors were required to prove that John and Timothy Rigashad violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or callan expert accounting witness in order to convict them ofsecurities fraud.

The attorneys also argued that the reversal by the appealscourt of the bank fraud convictions on count 23 for John andTimothy Rigas required the reversal of their bank fraudconvictions on count 22.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal without any commentor recorded dissent.

After the Enron and WorldCom cases, Adelphia was one of theU.S. Justice Department’s highest-profile corporate fraudprosecutions in recent years. The father and son were accusedof looting the company to pay for personal land deals andvacation homes.

Adelphia was the fifth-largest U.S. cable firm before its2002 collapse. Its cable system assets have been sold toComcast Corp and Time Warner Inc.

(Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Dave Zimmerman)