Ex-Enron boss 'taken to hospital after bar scuffles'

Troubled former Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling was taken to a Manhattan hospital after several people called police saying he was pulling on their clothes and accusing them of being FBI agents, a police source said.

Police found Skilling, who was chief executive of the collapsed power giant, at 4am yesterday at the corner of Park Avenue and East 73rd Street and deemed him an ”emotionally disturbed person”, said the source.

Skilling, of Houston, Texas, has denied charges of fraud, insider trading and other crimes in the colossal collapse of the energy trading company, and is on €4.6m bail.

He is accused of participating in widespread schemes to mislead government regulators and investors about the company’s earnings.

Skilling’s lawyer, Bruce Hiler, said yesterday that Skilling and his wife called police after they were assaulted by two men who had followed them. But police denied that account.

Police did not charge Skilling with a crime, but took him to New York Presbyterian Hospital for observation. Hospital officials would say only that Skilling had been discharged yesterday.

Hiler said Skilling was never at the two bars police said he visited - American Trash and Vudu Lounge.

Police received six to eight calls from patrons at both bars, the police source said, complaining that a man was pulling at their clothes. “He was shouting at them: ’You’re an FBI agent and you’re following me’,” the source said.

The man, identified by the police as Skilling, allegedly did the same thing to people on the street, the source added. He was with his wife at the time. He was described as drunk and highly unco-operative when he was approached by police, the source said.

But Hiler said Skilling and his wife were accosted by two men.

“Mr Skilling asked several passing cab drivers to call for the police after he and his wife were followed and harassed by two men, who questioned him about Enron and refused to answer when Mr Skilling asked whether they were FBI agents,” Hiler said.

During the confrontation, Skilling and his wife were pushed to the ground, Hiler said. Skilling suffered minor abrasions and his wife suffered a concussion.