The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

3. Enron Ending

Former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling is going away for a long time.

Skilling was sentenced Monday to 24 years in federal prison for his role in the collapse of the once-highflying energy trader. Skilling was convicted back in May of conspiracy and securities fraud.

Jurors decided that Skilling repeatedly lied to investors about Enron's declining financial health during his run at the company, which ended just four months before its collapse. But the onetime star of Harvard Business School and the McKinsey consultancy maintains his innocence.

"I am innocent of every one of these charges," Skilling said Monday. "We will continue to pursue my constitutional rights, and it's not a dishonor to this court or anyone else who was involved in this, but I feel very strongly about this."

Of course, other people feel equally strongly.

"His crimes have imposed on hundreds if not thousands a life sentence of poverty," judge Sim Lake said, referring to workers and shareholders whose investments were rendered worthless by Enron's bankruptcy.

"The Enron fraud is as large and serious as any other fraud in this nation's history," chief prosecutor Sean Berkowitz said. Skilling, he added, "set the culture of what happened at Enron."

That may be evident in the reaction of Skilling's former assistant, Sherri Sera. Skilling, she told The New York Times, is "the most intellectually honest person you will ever meet."

He's just dishonest in all the other ways.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 85. "Enron has become a horror to me," Skilling told the judge. Join the crowd.