RALEIGH, N.C. -- After fighting one of the nation's largest corporate fraud cases, former Adelphia Communications executives John and Timothy Rigas reported today to a federal prison in North Carolina.

Adelphia founder John Rigas and his son Tim, the company's former chief financial officer, were convicted in 2004 on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud, but had remained free while their appeals navigated the courts system.

The pair had asked that they be allowed to serve their time together at a facility close to their homes in Coudersport, Potter County, Pa. Instead, the federal Bureau of Prisons sent them to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, 45 minutes northwest of Raleigh.

They were registered at 10:35 a.m. at the complex's low-security prison, said Mike Truman, a federal prisons spokesman in Washington.

Prosecutors claimed the Rigases made Adelphia's finances appear more robust when they were in fact dangerously overextended by concealing nearly $2.3 billion of the company's debt.

They also accused the family of using company funds to finance personal follies, including 100 pairs of slippers for Timothy Rigas and more than $3 million to produce a film by John Rigas' daughter.

First Published: August 13, 2007, 4:45 p.m.