Actress Tells of Flying on Adelphia’s Planes

Actress Peta Wilson told federal jurors Monday that she took at least nine flights on Adelphia Communications Corp. planes, including trips to Jamaica and Los Angeles with former finance chief Timothy Rigas.

Wilson, who starred for five years in USA Network’s spy thriller, “La Femme Nikita,” described the trips at Rigas’ fraud trial in New York. Rigas, 47, is accused with his father, John, and brother, Michael, of looting Adelphia, the No. 5 U.S. cable television operator, and engaging in accounting fraud.

The Australian-born actress and former model said she met Timothy Rigas in 1996 at a cable television convention in New Orleans, where she went to promote “La Femme Nikita.” She said her trips on Adelphia jets included one with Rigas in April 2000 to Jamaica to advertise the show for Conde Nast Traveler.

“I thought he should just come [along] and relax,” Wilson told federal jurors Monday in New York.

Prosecutors allege the Rigases concealed billions of dollars of debt before Adelphia’s bankruptcy filing in June 2002, stole $100 million, and lied about company finances and operations. In an opening statement, a prosecutor said the Rigases looted Adelphia through their personal use of company jets.

Prosecutors allege that the Rigases used the company as a “private piggy bank” to pay for personal expenses, including $52 million in cash advances and $13 million to buy a golf course. They say the company spent $700,000 for Timothy Rigas to join a golf club and bought him 100 pairs of bedroom slippers.

Adelphia used its jet as a “personal taxi service,” prosecutor Richard Owens said in his opening statement.

The Rigases are accused with a fourth executive, Michael Mulcahey, 46, of securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiring to commit those crimes.

Shares of Adelphia, now based in Greenwood Village, Colo., rose less than a cent to 57.5 cents in over-the-counter trading.