Enron's Skilling to be resentenced

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HOUSTON (Reuters) -- A U.S. court upheld Tuesday the convictions of former Enron Corp President and Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling related to his role in the collapse of the energy trading company, but said he must be resentenced.

The ruling, handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, said the lower court erred when applying federal sentencing guidelines, so the executive could now receive a shorter sentence.

Skilling who was convicted along with former Chairman Kenneth Lay in May 2006 on conspiracy and fraud changes, is serving a 24-year term at a minimum security prison in Colorado. His lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lawyers for Skilling had argued in lengthy appeals that all 19 of the counts against the executive should have been tossed out because government prosecutors had used a flawed legal theory to win the case.

But the panel of judges wrote that Skilling's appeal "failed to demonstrate the government's case rested on an incorrect theory of law or that any reversible errors infected his trial."

Prior to filing bankruptcy in December 2001, Enron rose to become the seventh-largest U.S. corporation.

But the Houston energy trading company's fortunes unraveled after it was revealed that Enron had used off-the-books deals to hide billions of dollars in debts.

Lay died of a heart attack in July 2006. His convictions were thrown out because he died before his appeals were exhausted.