Former Adelphia Communications executives John and Timothy Rigas will begin serving their lengthy prison sentences Aug. 13, according to a U.S. District Court Judge’s ruling Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Sand, who imposed a 15-year sentence for former Adelphia chairman John Rigas and a 20-year sentence for his son, former Adelphia chief financial officer Timothy Rigas in 2005, said it is time that the two begin paying their debt to society.
The Rigases appealed their convictions in July 2004 on 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the accounting scandal that sent Adelphia into bankruptcy in 2002. The Rigases lost that appeal in May.
According to Bloomberg, Rigas attorney John Nields told Sand that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is planned. However, Sand denied the Rigases’ request that they remain free on bail pending the outcome of that appeal.
“Too much time has elapsed from the time of conviction of these defendants on these very serious charges and the time they begin serving sentence,” Sand said, according to Bloomberg.
Just where the two will serve out their sentences has not yet been determined. That will be decided by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
