Former Enron Chief Executive and future federal prisoner Jeffrey Skilling taught a generation of corporate attorneys a crucial lesson during his 2002 testimony before Congress: Don’t use the “I’m not an accountant” excuse for accounting problems at your company � it doesn’t go over well with authorities.
That remains true today. A growing number of general counsel have been fired, stepped down, or are even facing criminal charges for not doing enough to stop illegal accounting of stock options at their companies.
