Skilling, 50, turned himself in to FBI agents before dawn and was taken to the federal courthouse in handcuffs. He was released on $5 million bond, which he paid in cash. "I plead not guilty to all counts," he told Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy.

The Justice Department's Enron Task Force, which has been investigating possible fraud at the company for more than two years, heralded the charges against the former chief executive.

"The Skilling indictment demonstrates, in no uncertain terms, that no executive is too prominent or too powerful and no scheme to defraud is too complex or too fancy to avoid the long arm of the law," Deputy Attorney General James Comey said at a Washington news conference. He referred to Skilling as "THE guy at Enron."

The energy company's demise came to symbolize the beginning of an era of corporate scandals that came after the stock market bubble burst in 2000. It also cost nearly 15,000 Enron employees their jobs and shareholders billions of dollars. It led to the death of venerable accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP, which was convicted of obstructing justice after it was disclosed that its auditors had shredded documents related to its work for Enron. And Enron's demise was a prime exhibit in spurring lawmakers to pass landmark corporate reforms.

Enron's collapse, "perhaps more than any other corporate scandal we have ever seen, shook public confidence in corporate America," Comey said.

Skilling, who was hired in 1990 at the urging of company founder Kenneth Lay, transformed the company from a stolid pipeline firm into an electronic trading powerhouse that at one point ranked seventh on the Fortune 500 list. Skilling faces years in prison if he is convicted of all charges. Prosecutors also seek to freeze $66 million in gains related to stock sales, salary and bonuses Skilling received.

One of Skilling's lawyers, Daniel Petrocelli, vowed his client would vigorously fight the charges in a trial likely to take place next year.

"Jeff Skilling has nothing to hide," Petrocelli said outside the Houston courthouse. "He did not steal, he did not lie, he did not take anyone's money. ... Jeff Skilling did nothing wrong."

Dressed in a dark blue suit and a white shirt, Skilling was flanked by as many as five defense lawyers in the crowded courtroom. For the most part, he sat expressionless during the brief proceeding. In advising Skilling of his right to have a lawyer present, Stacy added, "But it seems you have an embarrassment of riches in that regard."

During the months of investigation, Skilling mostly has receded from public view in Houston, where he has sometimes been jeered by angry former employees and the public. He has spent time with his three children and traveling nationwide, according to a person familiar with his activities.

Skilling set up a company called Veld Interests Inc. shortly after leaving Enron. It's unclear how much business he is conducting, though. Prosecutors moved yesterday to freeze $91,800 in cash from Veld.

Prosecutors and investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who filed a separate civil fraud complaint against Skilling yesterday, got a boost from last month's guilty plea by Andrew Fastow, a former Enron chief financial officer and Skilling protŽgŽ.

Fastow, a mastermind behind many of the company's secretive partnerships, led the government to Skilling's doorstep, building on accounts from other corporate insiders in Enron's finance and accounting ranks.

Still under the microscope of investigators is Lay, Enron's founder and longtime chairman, who has said through attorneys that he was hoodwinked by Fastow and other employees. The government continues to probe what Lay knew about Enron's worsening finances when he made optimistic statements about the company's health and sold stock.

In essence, the government contends in the 57-page indictment that Skilling stood at the center of a wide-ranging conspiracy from 1999 to 2001 that employed accounting maneuvers, false statements and other methods to prop up Enron's stock price and enrich himself in the process.

Corporate executives are required under the law to provide full and complete disclosure about significant or "material" developments that affect a company's finances. Instead, prosecutors said, Skilling repeatedly misled shareholders and analysts about Enron's financial health.

"Mr. Skilling was quick to take credit for the 'innovations' behind Enron's spectacular rise and its apparent transformation into a 'new economy' powerhouse," said SEC Enforcement Director Stephen Cutler. "Of course, many of these so-called 'innovations' were, in truth, nothing more than fraudulent business practices."

Unlike Lay and other top Enron leaders, who asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination, Skilling testified before Congress in early 2002, saying he had no hint that trouble loomed when he left the company. Though many of the charges in the indictment accuse him of knowing much about Enron's financial crisis, he wasn't charged with perjury.

Skilling is likely to face a trial alongside former chief accountant Richard Causey, who was charged with conspiracy and securities fraud last month. Prosecutors filed seven new criminal charges against Causey yesterday, including insider trading, and sought the court's permission to seize his Texas home and more than $2.5 million in securities.