The final project for this course is the creation of an executive summary report. Write a summary, conduct a crime assessment, and create a profile of a criminal. Then develop a conclusion and consider the investigative use of the information you have compiled. Criminal psychology encompasses a wide range of information about someone that can be drawn together, synthesized, and written into a format used by the criminal justice system prior to an arrest. Typically, criminal psychologists are called upon to provide advice and consultation when the crimes are not straightforward. Law enforcement officers are experts at tracking data and looking for crimerelated clues to help them solve a case. However, when they need assistance determining who a criminal is, or what a criminal's motivation might bein a predictive sensethey rely on the capabilities of professionals who are versed both in criminology and psychology. A criminal profile emerges as data comes together and is an important tool. This is not the same as the information you see on the news; rather it is a comprehensive look at the biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors that make a person unique to a criminal case. Some of the information is based on empirical data and some is based on educated assumptions made by the criminal psychologist.

Look at a variety of factors and work to answer the question, "who is this person?" Examine criminal statistics, lifestyle, upbringing, medical and mental health information, along with a range of other information, that will help you answer the "who, what, when, where, and why" of your chosen case. It will be your job to draw from your previous education and training to learn how to understand what information is relevant to your case. There is no piece of information that is too small to help you build the mosaic of how past activity can help predict future activity. Your profile will be thorough, addressing all of the areas and questions above for the aim of assisting investigators to understand the criminal and his or her motivations and motives as well as the risk of the criminal activity continuing in the future. Through prompts and independent research outside of the text, peer into the world of investigative profiling.

For this Milestone One task, the summary and crime assessment portion of the final project assessment.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Summary
   1. Summarize the case provided below. In your summary, include key facts and demographic information.
   2. Develop an initial hypothesis about the potential motivation to commit the crime. As you consider the motivation, identify the type of crime that was committed.
2. Crime Assessment
   1. Compare data and evidence of similar crimes.
   2. Identify patterns found in similar crimes.
   3. Make inferences about motivation of the identified individual based on case evidence and comparison to similar crimes.

White Collar Crime Case

Jeffrey Skilling was born on November 25, 1953 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The second of four children, Skilling spent his early childhood in New Jersey. After relocating to Illinois, his father worked as a sales manager, while his elder brother went on to become the chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. Skilling attended West Aurora High School in Illinois, at which time he began his first job working at a local television station.

A gifted student, Skilling received a full scholarship to attend Southern Methodist University, graduating with a degree in applied sciences in 1975. During his admissions interview for the MBA program at Harvard Business School, Skilling was reportedly asked if he was smart, to which he replied,"Yes,I'm [expletive]smart."After completing his MBA in 1979, Skilling accepted an opportunity to work for McKinsey & Company in their energy and chemical consulting practices. Quickly climbing the corporate ladder, Skilling went on to become one of the youngest partners at McKinsey.

In 1990, Skilling was hired away from McKinsey by Kenneth Lay to work at Enron Corporation, where he was named chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Finance Corporation. After receiving several promotions and commanding oversight of various subsidiaries during his first five years at Enron, Skilling was promoted to chief operating officer in 1997, enjoying the role of being the second most powerful person in the Enron corporation. In this role, Skilling promoted an aggressive investment strategy, gradually turning Enron into the largest wholesaler of gas and electricity in the United States. With $27 billion traded in a quarter, his investment strategy significantly contributed to the fiscal growth of the companyan achievement that resulted in Skilling replacing Lay as CEO of Enron in 2001.

With regard to his leadership approach, Skilling was observed as intelligent, yet uncompromisingly assertive. Although he was a respected leader in the eyes of many of his team members, Skilling's antisocial tendencies were viewed as instrumental in creating a culture of aggression and competition within the organization. Equally aggressive was Skilling's approach to encouraging employees to invest all of their earnings in Enron stock. As a charismatic leader, the manner in which Skilling promoted employee trust was highlighted in a concise statement made on a 2001 PBS Frontline interview: "We are the good guys. We are on the side of angels."

Then, on August 14, 2001, at the height of the California energy crises, Skilling submitted his formal resignation as the CEO of Enron, citing"personal reasons"for his decision. At the time of his resignation, Skilling sold approximately $60 million in shares of Enron stock. Immediately thereafter, Lay was called back to regain his title as CEO.

Following Skilling's resignation, Enron's financial performance decreased dramatically. In August 2001, Enron company stock plummeted to an all-time low; by October, stock was valued at $15. During this significant downturn, Lay, like Skilling, was accused of selling nearly $60 million of his shareholder stake in the company. In December 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy.

When Enron executives realized that the end was quickly approaching, they froze employee stock accounts to keep the price high, while they cashed in $116 million of their own stock. This resulted in a

worthless investment for Enron employees, with no way to recover their losses. In an effort to downplay this economic devastation, Enron claimed their losses to be considerably less than they were, and altered accounting records in an attempt to make their income appear significantly higher than it was.

The core of Enron's unethical accounting scandal centered on the use of"mark-to-market"accounting to falsify their profits and the misuse of special purpose entities. Over a ten-year period, Enron recorded anticipated future profits as actual gains in order to inflate its stock price. Skilling and other top officials at Enron abused their power and status, manipulated shareholder information, and placed their personal financial interests above those of their employees and the public, while failing to exercise oversight or accept responsibility for ethical misconduct.

Skilling surrendered to the FBI on February 19, 2006 and was convicted of multiple federal felony charges, including insider trading, securities fraud, and falsifying corporate accounting statements to auditors. In addition, Skilling was fined $45 million and sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in prisona conviction considered to be one of the harshest in United States white-collar crime history. In 2013, a federal judge reduced Skilling's sentence by a decade; as part of the deal, Skilling dropped his remaining appeals and turned over $45 million in restitution which had been retained while Skilling pursued the appeals process. Skilling was released on February 20, 2020 from a minimum-security prison in Alabama to a halfway house in Texas.

Despite having been found guilty in 19 criminal courts, Skilling continues to maintain his innocence to this day, arguing that he is not responsible forEnron'ssecurities fraud because he was unaware of the deceptive practices that were taking place. Skilling has repeatedly argued that any action that he took as the CEO of Enron was never for personal gain and only for the good of employees. He has been quoted as saying,"Money is the only thing that motivatespeople."

At the time of its collapse in December 2001, Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in United States history. For over 20,000 employees, the fraudulent activity had widespread impacts: in the end, Enron employees and retirees lost $2.2 billion in pension and retirement funds, not including shareholders losses. It cost them their jobs and, in many cases, their life savings. In the aftermath of the Enron scandal, many white-collar crime experts have expressed concern thatSkilling'slack of accountability for his actions could tempt future C-level executives and their boards, auditors, lawyers, and bankers to work in collusion to ignore policy, evade the system, and set the standard for fraud acceptance.

References

Jeffrey Skilling. (2014, September 9). Biography. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey- skilling

Johnson, C. (2003). Enron's ethical collapse: Lessons for leadership educators.Journal of Leadership Education, 2(1), 45-56.

McLean, B. & Elkind, P. (2003). The smartest guys in the room: The amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. pp. 28. New York, NY: Portfolio.

Public Broadcast System. (2001).Blackout program #1916 transcript. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/blackout/etc/script.html

Segal, T. (2021).Enron scandal: The fall of Wall Street darling. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2022).Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jeffrey K. Skilling et al., Civil Action No. 4-00284. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2015/lr23422.htm#:~:text=Skilling%20was%20first%20convic ted%20in,assessed%20%2445%20million%20in%20restitution.