In the meantime, his attorneys have made plans to ask for a new trial based on alleged misconduct of the Enron Task Force. If the feds cut a sentencing deal with Skilling, CNBC points out, they could avoid the embarrassment of a retrial.

 

In October 2006, Skilling, then 52, was sentenced for his role in the massive accounting fraud that caused Enron's spectacular collapse. (The fraud led to much stricter accounting standards under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.)