Bernard Ebbers - Criminal Charges

Criminal Charges

On August 27, 2003, Oklahoma's Attorney General, Drew Edmondson, filed a 15-count indictment against Ebbers. The indictment charged that he violated the state's securities laws by defrauding investors on multiple occasions between January 2001 and March 2002. These charges were dropped, with the right to refile retained, on November 20, 2003. An agreement to extend the statute of limitations on these charges, allowing Oklahoma prosecutors time to see the results of federal sentencing, was signed on March 30, 2005.

Federal authorities indicted Ebbers with security fraud and conspiracy charges on March 2, 2004. An amendment to the indictment on May 25, 2004 increased the list of charges to nine felonies: one count each of conspiracy and securities fraud, and seven counts of filing false statements with securities regulators. Ebbers was found guilty of all charges on March 15, 2005.

On July 13, 2005, federal judge Barbara S. Jones, of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York in Manhattan, sentenced Ebbers to twenty-five years in a federal prison in Louisiana. Ebbers was allowed to remain free for another year while his appeal was being considered. His conviction, however, was upheld in a federal circuit court on July 28, 2006. On September 6, 2006, the presiding judge ordered him to report to jail on September 26 to start serving his 25-year sentence. Ebbers self-reported to Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, Louisiana on September 26, 2006, driving himself to the prison in his Mercedes. He is serving his sentence as inmate #56022-054 in the low-security portion of the complex, which typically houses non-violent offenders and is built more like a school dormitory. The earliest date he can be released is in July 2028, at which time he will be 87 years old.