Former Enron Corp. chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling was picked up early Friday morning by New York City police looking for an “emotionally disturbed person” on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, according to the New York Daily News. Officers checked Skilling into New York Presbyterian Hospital.
A police source told the Associated Press that patrons at two bars, the Vudu Lounge and American Trash, said that Skilling had pulled on their clothes and accused them of being FBI agents. Skilling, who was accompanied by his wife, did the same to several people on the street, added the AP. “You’re an FBI agent and you’re following me!,” he shouted at them, according to the police source.
Skilling attorney Bruce Hiler maintained that the former CEO and his wife — Rebecca Carter, a former Enron corporate secretary — never set foot in either bar, added the Daily News. Hiler said that Skilling and his wife called police after they were shoved to the ground by two armed men who asked questions about Enron and who refused to state whether they were FBI agents.
A police source told Reuters that Skilling was “highly uncooperative” when he was picked up. They determined that he was “intoxicated, irrational and possibly suffering from paranoid delusions,” added the source.
According to Reuters, the police did not press charges, and the hospital said it had no information on Skilling.
In February the former CEO pleaded not guilty to 35 counts connected to Enron’s collapse; he posted a $5 million bond in Houston and is free to travel.