After nearly eight days on the witness stand trying to convince jurors that he did nothing wrong as president, COO and CEO of Enron Corp., Jeffrey Skilling was able to relax — sort of — by midday Thursday. Tired after a grueling cross-examination that lasted three days, Skilling told reporters outside the Houston courtroom that he had said what he wanted to say.

“I’ve waited for a long time to say something… It’s really hard to say something with all that’s going on,” Skilling said. “It’s been a tough six years. It’s been a really hard six years.”

Skilling’s lawyer Daniel Petrocelli reminded the crowd that the case against Skilling and his codefendant, Enron founder Kenneth Lay, is far from over.

“Right now, we still have a lot of important witnesses,” Petrocelli said. “This is not over.” Thursday afternoon, several defense witnesses testified about Lay and Skilling’s integrity, including Skilling’s ex-wife Sue Lowe, former business clients and personal friends. Lay could take the stand as early as Monday.

Skilling’s credibility took several blows under cross-examination by prosecutor Sean Berkowitz, and Petrocelli tried to undue any damage on his redirect. Among the 28 criminal counts against Skilling, the government contends he directed subordinates to dip into the company’s reserves in 2001 to mask the poor earnings performance of other business units. Berkowitz displayed a chart for the jury on Tuesday that showed more than $1 billion in reserves was available in early 2001, which he contended Enron used like a “cookie jar.”

Petrocelli asked Skilling, “Did you think of reserves as a place you could just pull out money for earnings?”

“You couldn’t,” Skilling said. Enron’s reserves, he said, were in a “lock box,” and they were not to be used like a bank to prop up other units. He explained that the $1 billion reserve account increased to $1.3 billion by the end of 2Q2001, which actually reduced reported earnings. “The whole characterization of reserves as a ‘cookie jar’ is demonstratively untrue.”

Skilling also explained statements he made in January 2001 to financial analysts that Enron’s stock would rise by about 50% to reach $126/share by the end of the year. He told the jury that half of Enron’s value in 2001 was expected to come from its “traditional” businesses — gas pipelines, power plants and trading — and the other half would come from its emerging businesses, Enron Energy Services (EES) and Enron Broadband Services (EES).

“Most of it was prospective value, a projection of what cash flows in the future would be and discounted back,” Skilling said. However, he admitted EES and EBS did not perform as he expected following those comments.

In March 2001, Enron folded EES into Enron North America, the company’s profitable wholesale business. Several of Skilling’s subordinates testified the move was directed by Skilling to mask EES’s growing losses as 1Q2001 came to an end. Skilling reiterated the move was transparent and legal.

In his recross-examination of Skilling, Berkowitz asked Skilling about two $10,000 checks made out to Jennifer Binder. Binder, a former Enron photographer and one of Skilling’s former girlfriends, started an Internet photo business called Photofete in 1998.

The first check to Binder from Skilling was dated Dec. 28, 1997; the second was dated March 2, 1998. However, the number on the March 1998 check preceded the number on the December 1997 check. Berkowitz accused Skilling of backdating one of the checks to avoid paying gift taxes.

Skilling said he could not explain the difference in the check numbers and dates. Berkowitz continued.

“I’m suggesting you backdated a check to avoid paying taxes to the [Internal Revenue Service],” Berkowitz said.

“If you’re asking me if I avoided paying every dollar that I owe Uncle Sam…the answer would be ‘no,'” Skilling answered. Skilling paid about $66.2 million in taxes between 1997 and 2004.

Skilling admitted under questioning earlier in the week that he also had given Binder $180,000 in 1997 and 1998 for the Photofete business. Berkowitz asked Skilling Thursday if he gave Binder $20,000 in March 1998 to purchase a town home.

“I don’t recall,” Skilling said.

Berkowitz also asked Skilling if he continued his relationship with Binder after 1998.

“What does this have to do with fraud at Enron Corporation?” Skilling asked. “Just out of curiosity?”

Berkowitz didn’t answer. Instead, he gave Skilling a copy of Enron’s code of ethics.

“I didn’t [sic] understand this,” Skilling said. “What is this again?”

“This is the code of ethics,” Berkowitz replied.

After reviewing it, Skilling admitted he had violated the company’s ethics code by not informing the board as required about his relationship with Binder and his Photofete investment.

“In retrospect, I probably should have been more diligent on this. I’m sorry. It didn’t occur to me.”

“When we started this testimony, we agreed that the most important thing that the jury had to rely on was your word,” Berkowitz said.

During a courtroom break, Lay attorney George “Mac” Secrest told presiding U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that he will conduct the direct examination of Lay. Lay lawyer Mike Ramsey, who was to conduct the questioning, is continuing recovery from a medical procedure.

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