Trial of Adelphia’s Rigas Family Begins

In the wildly lavish lifestyle of Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas’ family, a Christmas tree cost as much as $20,000, a prosecutor said at the opening Monday of the latest trial in a string of financial scandals.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Owens used the holiday episode to describe a family run amok, saying “lies and greed” drove members to steal millions of dollars from their business and live in splendor with a company jet at the ready.

“It speaks volumes of the intent and attitude of these defendants,” Owens told a jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Defense lawyers, however, portrayed the family members as full of love for the company they built and for Coudersport, the Pennsylvania town that benefited from their success, and said that any irregularities were the fault of company crooks turned government witnesses.

“This is a case where Adelphia, supposedly looted by these defendants, prospers with a bright future, while John Rigas, in his 80th year, has lost all that he built, including his wealth,” Rigas’ attorney, Peter Fleming Jr., said.

But Owens accused the family of stealing from the nation’s fifth-largest cable company without regard to other investors, including pension funds, mutual funds and people who believed Adelphia was a well-run investment gem.

Owens said the Rigas family stole hundreds of millions of dollars from 1999 until 2002, when the problems were revealed and the company was forced into bankruptcy reorganization.

Paul Grand, lawyer for codefendant Timothy Rigas, said the family never sold a share of its company in 56 years. “I think the evidence will show they are not criminals. They should not have been charged,” he said.