Former Adelphia Communications executives John and Timothy Rigas will begin serving their lengthy prison sentences on Aug. 13, according to a U.S. District Court Judge’s ruling June 27.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Sand, who in 2005 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, said that it is time that the two begin paying their debt to society.
The Rigases had appealed their convictions in July 2004 on 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the accounting scandal that sent the Coudersport, Pa.-based cable operator into bankruptcy in 2002. The Rigases lost that appeal in May.
According to Bloomberg News, 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.
Exactly where the two men will serve out their sentences has not yet been determined.
That will be decided by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
