Supreme Court Won't Hear John, Timothy Rigas Appeals

Former Adelphia Communications Executives Convicted of Conspiring to Commit Securities and Bank Fraud

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/3/2008 12:00:00 PM

The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear the appeal of former Adelphia Communications executives John Rigas and son Timothy Rigas on their convictions of conspiring to commit securities and bank fraud.

That is according to a summary of case dispositions released Monday, which listed at the top of those appeals denied High Court hearings the case of "Rigas, Timothy J., et al. v. United States."

The Rigases claimed in their appeal that the government "was required to prove that petitioners had violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or to call an expert accounting witness in order to convict them of securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities fraud." The government had said it did not.

John Rigas, who is in his 80s, was founder and former chairman, president and CEO of the cable company, which was the fifth-largest cable provider in the United States before its collapse in 2002. His son, Timothy, was executive vice president and chief financial officer.

The pair was found guilty after the Rigas family mixed personal and corporate finances. Investors lost billions of dollars when Adelphia collapsed in 2002 after disclosures that members of the company's founding family were siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars from the company for personal use and had misrepresented the company's financial condition.

The scandal forced the company to seek Chapter 11 protection.

Timothy Rigas was sentenced to 20 years in prison and his father to 18 years.