Rigas'

[Miklos Vasarhelyi <miklosv@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

Adelphia's John Rigas Gets 15 Years
Judge Gives 80-Year-Old
An Effective Life Sentence;
20 Years for Son Timothy

By DIONNE SEARCEY and LI YUAN 
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 21, 2005

Adelphia Communications Corp.'s 80-year-old founder John Rigas was
sentenced to 15 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy, marking the
first effective life sentence in the wave of high-profile corporate-fraud
cases scheduled for sentencing this summer.

Mr. Rigas's son, Timothy, 49, Adelphia's former chief financial officer,
was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the case.

A desperate plea for leniency by the Rigases attorneys was harshly
rejected by the judge. "If it was not for your age and health I
would impose a far greater sentence," U.S. District Judge Leonard
Sand told the elder Mr. Rigas, calling the Adelphia fraud "one of
the largest frauds in corporate history." Both men were told to
surrender to the court Sept. 19. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has yet to
determine where the two men will serve their sentences.

John Rigas could be considered for release if doctors diagnose him as
being three months away from death, but only after he has served two
years in prison, Judge Sand ruled in New York.

The Rigas sentences -- both long, certainly by white-collar crime
standards -- are the first two in a series of at least 10 sentencings of
executives convicted in connection with financial wrongdoing scheduled
for this summer. WorldCom founder Bernard Ebbers, 63, is scheduled for
sentencing July 13 and his attorneys say he is facing a possible life
sentence. Five other former WorldCom executives will be sentenced in July
and August, while Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco
International Ltd., is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

Prosecutors had recommended 215 years each for the Rigases, convicted
last summer of looting the cable company of more than $100 million,
hiding more that $2 billion in debt the family accumulated and lying to
the public about Adelphia's operations and financial condition.

The elder Mr. Rigas, along with his son, used company funds for personal
luxuries such as a $40,000-a-year masseuse and 17 cars, according to
testimony. The Rigases' defense attorneys had said the sentences
shouldn't take into account the financial losses suffered by Adelphia,
partly because the Rigases also were hurt badly by the company's collapse
in the spring of 2002.

During the sentencing, Judge Sand sparred with the attorneys for the two
men and repeatedly expressed outrage at their actions. When they offered
their arguments for lenient sentences, saying both men had helped
numerous communities and were philanthropists, Judge Sand said that
"to be a great philanthropist with other people's money is really
not a very persuasive argument" for leniency.

At one point the judge interrupted John Rigas's attorney and said,
"If you're trying to convince me ... that there was not a blatant
fraud attempt on the part of John Rigas, you're going to have a very hard
sell."

John Rigas asked the judge for leniency and offered a halting, somewhat
rambling speech about his legacy as a cable-industry visionary, his Greek
heritage and his grandchildren. At one point he cited part of the
"Star-Spangled Banner," and said how much he loved the
U.S.

Addressing the judge, the elder Mr. Rigas said he was sorry, but added
that he didn't think he belonged in jail. "If I did anything wrong,
I apologize," he said. "I did the best I can to correct. If
that means I have to go to prison, it's not where I ever expected to be
in my life nor do I believe that's where I should be."

Legal experts said the sentences were tough, particularly for the elder
Mr. Rigas. The sentence for John Rigas "doesn't reflect an effort to
balance the severity of the crime with the life expectancy of the
defendant. It's a very harsh sentence," said Richard Marmaro, head
of the securities and white-collar practice at law firm Proskauer Rose
LLP in Los Angeles.

"It looks like it will be the rest of his life, and there's not a
lot of precedent for that," said Jason Brown, a former federal
prosecutor who now specializes in white-collar crime and civil litigation
at Holland & Knight LLP in New York.

Mr. Brown said the judge most likely was seeking to send the message that
white-collar criminals will be severely punished, even if they are
considerably older than most inmates. Yet by giving John Rigas 15 years
instead of a sentence closer to the prosecution's request of 215 years
each, the judge was holding out a glimmer of hope that, with time off for
good behavior, John Rigas could survive the sentence.

--Shawn Young contributed to this article.

Write to Dionne Searcey at
dionne.searcey@wsj.com and Li
Yuan at li.yuan@wsj.com

Miklos A. Vasarhelyi
KPMG Professor of AIS
Rutgers University
Director Rutgers Accounting Research Center
315 Ackerson Hall
180 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102
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