John Rigas, the founder and former chairman and CEO of Adelphia Communications who was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after a massive fraud scheme that afflicted the company over decades, died in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 30. He was 96 years old.

Rigas was the epitome of the bootstrapping cable executive, founding Adelphia in 1952 with his brother, Gus, with a $300 loan and eventually growing the company to the sixth-largest cable operator in the country with 5.5 million subscribers.

Rigas reveled in his rags-to-riches story and he often spoke of growing up in an apartment over his Greek immigrant parents’ diner (Texas Hot) in Wells, N.Y., and how he often slept in the Coudersport movie theater that was his first business venture. While he grew Adelphia mainly by acquisition — he famously paid the highest multiple ever (at the time) for a cable company, Daniels & Associates‘ Carlsbad, California, system in the early days — his empire came crashing down in 2004, when federal prosecutors claimed he and his family took from publicly traded Adelphia billions of dollars for their own personal use. 

Cable's Rock of Ages: Coudersport's Rigases

John Rigas was convicted of 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy in July 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His son, Adelphia chief financial officer Timothy Rigas, was convicted on 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to 20 years. John Rigas was released from federal prison in 2016 after serving nearly 10 years, when a judge ordered his compassionate early release after it was thought he had about six months to live. Rigas had earlier been diagnosed with Stage IV bladder cancer.

Timothy Rigas was released in 2019 after serving about 12 years of a 17-year sentence (reduced from 20 years in 2008), part of the federal First Step Act which allows for the early release of inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes who have served two-thirds of their sentence and are over the age of 60. Tim Rigas was scheduled to serve the remaining two years of his sentence in home confinement.

A third son, former Adelphia chief operating officer Michael Rigas, was granted a mistrial after jurors could not reach a verdict regarding 15 counts of securities fraud and two counts of bank fraud. He pleaded to a lesser charge of signing false documents and served a two-year sentence under house arrest.

A fourth executive, assistant treasurer Michael Mulcahy, was found not guilty. 

Fall of the House of Rigas: An Adelphia Time Line

The scandal erased more than 50 years of good will the Rigas family built up as it assembled its cable empire and rocked the industry as a whole. Coming at a time when the business world was swept up in off-balance sheet debt issues after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, some major figures, including cable legend John Malone, have said the Rigas family was unfairly treated. Others believed the family reaped what it sowed.

John Rigas continued to maintain his innocence until the day he died. In an interview with USA Today in 2007, he claimed that he could have cut a deal with the federal government by pleading to lesser charges and avoiding jail time, but he refused to plead guilty to something he believed he didn’t do. 

“My legacy is to my grandchildren, and you have to stand up — as difficult as it is — for something. And that is not something to be compromised or amended," Rigas told USA Today in 2007. 

The Rigases were accused of pillaging the company over a span of decades, siphoning money from operations and putting the company on the hook for about $2.3 billion in  off-balance sheet loans. In court documents, prosecutors accused the family of using Adelphia as its “personal piggy bank” and “personal ATM” financing a golf course, luxury condominiums and items as mundane as a $6,000 to fly two Christmas trees from Coudersport to daughter Ellen’s home in New York,  and John Rigas’ Columbia House record club subscription.

Adelphia’s fall began in March 2002 after company executives, during a conference call discussing Q1 results, couldn’t answer questions regarding $2.3 billion in off-balance sheet debt. It was later determined that the Rigases used those loans to buy Adelphia stock, which was used aggressively to buy other cable systems. 

Adelphia was sold in 2006 to Comcast and Time Warner Cable for $17.6 billion in cash and stock. 

Rigas is survived by his sons Timothy, Michael and James (CEO of Zito Media), his daughter Ellen and several grandchildren. His wife Doris predeceased him in 2014. 

Former Adelphia Communications chief financial officer Timothy Rigas has been released from prison after serving about 12 years of a 17-year federal sentence for fraud and conspiracy connected to the multi-billion dollar accounting scandal that shut down the former Pennsylvania cable operator in 2004.

Adelphia was once the fifth largest cable operator in the country. In the wake of the scandal, its systems were sold in 2006 to Comcast and Time Warner Cable, now part of Charter Communications.

Tim Rigas and his father John were convicted on 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy in 2004 connected with a massive accounting scandal where, according to the court, the Rigases used publicly-traded Adelphia as their personal piggy bank, using company funds to fund a lavish lifestyle. 

Related: Fall of the House of Rigas Timeline

Tim Rigas reported to serve his sentence in August 2007 and according to the Bureau of Prisons website, was scheduled to be released on June 3, 2022. His early release was part of a new federal law -- the First Step Act -- that allows for the early release of inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes who have served two-thirds of their sentence and are over the age of 60. Tim Rigas is 63 years old. He is expected to serve out the rest of his sentence -- about two years -- in home confinement.

Tim Rigas was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison, but that sentence was reduced to 17 years in 2008. His father John was originally sentenced to 15 years, but had that term reduced to 12 years.

John Rigas, the founder and former chairman of Adelphia, was released in 2016 after serving nearly 10 years, when a judge ordered his compassionate early release after it was thought he had about six months to live. John Rigas, who is now 94 years old, suffers from Stage IV bladder cancer. 

In a Facebook post, the elder Rigas, still very much alive, expressed his joy upon his son’s release, and stressed that the family continues to try to clear its name. Both John and Tim Rigas are trying to get their convictions overturned.

“For my family and me, this is a much-anticipated event and a tremendous blessing. We are elated!,” John Rigas said in his Facebook post. “Tim will be required to serve the remainder of his sentence, about two years, in home confinement. He and I continue to hope that our convictions will be overturned in the habeas corpus appeal that is pending in New York City, where our trial was held in 2004.”

John Rigas added that although he is elated about his son’s release, he was saddened that it did not come before the death of his wife Doris, who passed away in 2014. Tim was not allowed to attend his mother’s funeral.

“For so many years, she longed deeply to see her family reunited,” John Rigas wrote. “Although Doris’s physical absence leaves a tremendous void, her spirit—so full of determination and unconditional love for her family—will always be there to help sustain and guide us.”

Rigas apparently told the Potter County Leader-Entetrprise that Tim could work in another family cable business -- Zito Media, headed by James Rigas, Tim’s brother and John’s son. But he did not elaborate as to what role he could play.