Deliberations Continue in Adelphia Fraud Case
A federal jury in New York will resume deliberations Tuesday in the securities fraud trial of Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and three other former executives.
The jurors, after an 18-week trial, on Friday completed their first full week of deliberations over whether John Rigas, his sons Timothy and Michael, and another executive, Michael Mulcahey, conspired to cheat investors and looted the cable TV company to buy stock for themselves and fund extravagant lifestyles.
Prosecutors have charged the four former executives with multiple counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy.
Jurors, who have asked for dozens of exhibits from the trial, reappeared in the courtroom Friday to hear a taped replay of an Adelphia earnings conference call on March 27, 2002.
On the tape, a Merrill Lynch analyst can be heard asking about $2.3 billion of off-balance-sheet loans at Adelphia -- loans that eventually helped drive the company into bankruptcy protection.
“That’s an awful lot of debt that is not on the consolidated balance sheet,” the analyst said, according to the tape. “It would be helpful to understand what’s supporting that debt outside of Adelphia.”
Timothy Rigas responds by telling the analyst that Adelphia is “very comfortable” it can pay off the debt. “But we will try to see if we can’t give you some more clarity on that ... see if we can’t give you a little more comfort there.”
In June 2002, just months after that conference call with analysts and investors, Adelphia filed for bankruptcy protection.
From Reuters
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