Enron's Skilling enters federal prison in Minn.

HOUSTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling entered a federal prison today to begin serving a 24-year sentence for his crimes in the one of the most infamous corporate scandals in US history.

Skilling, 53, arrived at the Waseca Federal Correctional Institution in Minnesota shortly after noon, the prison said in a release.

Skilling, who has appealed his conviction on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading, will serve 292 months, the longest sentence of any former Enron employee linked to the 2001 downfall of the energy trader in the then-largest ever US bankruptcy.

Designated ''low security'' by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the 1,123-bed Waseca facility is a former university extension campus that is one security level higher than the minimum security ''prison camps'' where corporate offenders are often placed.

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