Ebbers guilty - Ex-WorldCom chairman guilty on all nine counts in massive accounting fraud.

CNN ^ | 3/15/2005 | NA

[Orange1998]

the "creative bookkeeping" done by the CFO and his cronies was hugely deceptive and nearly impossible to follow.

Enron was complex because they hired the BEST lawyers money could buy. Lawyers from outside the company were interested to see how the best lawyers crafted the deals.

[Orange1998]

Oh yeah! I should apply that logic to Bill Gates the college drop out. You can't judge a book by it's cover. But I have to admit in this case hindsight is 20/20.

[higgmeister]

Be grateful for Milken's contribution to the economy by helping good companies borrow money to grow (they disparaged the instruments as "junk bonds".)

Milken stole nothing, defrauded no one.

And interestingly enough, probably the largest of those
companies was MCI which finally survived and grew
well enough to make it a target for takeover by Bernie Ebbers.

[eleni121]

David Anders and Wm. Johnson accomplished a lot for the business world: putting away another big time con man...hopefully for good.

The credit should go as well to John Ashcroft and the suberb job at Justice...now run by another "good guy" -Gonzalez.

[staytrue]

Incompetence is no defense

Has someone made stupidity a jailable offense?

[dollar_dog]

Contrary to leftist opinion, the facts show Bernie Ebbers was not in bed with the GOP.

In fact, his campaign contributions clearly show he spreads money to both sides, and his last donation was to John F. Kerry.

[orlop9]

I'm going out on a limb here, & will probably aggravate the local dim-wit chattering class, but here goes.
I'm amazed at the folks here who believe what they read in the papers and see on the news, you all ought to know better. The real "bad guy" in this little train wreck wasn't Ebbers, I know this for a fact. Ask yourselves this simple question, who lost the most money in this little deal? Do any of you know how much of a bonus the new "ethical" CEO of MCI just got. No, he wasn't around then, I know that. He just got a $12,000,000 bonus, for what. He hasn't turned around anything, MCI is still a joke.
I'm not saying Ebbers didn't know the company was in trouble, I think he did. But the CFO is & was a lying dirtbag.
Ebbers biggest mistake was buying MCI in the first place,(it was because of a grudge) his second biggest mistake was retaining the MCI hierarchy ( they won in the long run ).
When the internet bubble burst Worldcom was left holding the bag for a lot of failed co's. When Sept. 11, 2001 happened Worldcom spent millions getting data lines restored for Wall Street, (they are still being used) and then the stock was "shorted" for their trouble.
I'm not just running my yap about something I know nothing about here folks, someone very close to me lost over seven figures, because they refused to bail out when they could've.

[Aquinasfan]

I dont think there was embezzlement per se, just false financial statements.

OK. But wouldn't it take a bunch of people to perpetuate these false financial statements?

[WoofDog123]

" OK. But wouldn't it take a bunch of people to perpetuate these false financial statements?"

Absolutely, in fact I cannot imagine it being pulled off without the knowledge or general awareness of a decent number of people, thought the CEO and CFO are central in such a scheme.

[TexasCajun]

Oh Kenny Boy! Are ya watching?

You're "Iwasoutoftheloop" B.S. ain't gonna work!

You may want people to think you are an honest man, but you are not and you will pay too!

[thag]

The DUmmies say the same thing...that W will pardon him. It must be terrible to be hated by all......

[jackieaxe]

"That is every dumbass investor who decided to drop their money into a mega-telecom company that was headed by a highschool gym coach!"

Actually there has to be some expectation by the public that large companies will be held to strict accounting standards, so that they and the market CAN evaluate the merits of the company. Worldcom/LDDS was a real company, had real employees, bought other real companies, and then more, and was one of the largest telecoms in the world. The public had a right to expect their financials to be in order, which is what this trial is about.

AGREE. Worldcom told the world they made money for 4 straight quarters when the rest of telecom was reporting losses. It turns out Worldcom lost money for those 4 quarters. Investors have the right to expect the reported numbers to be true.

It's a shame Mr. Ebbers got to walk out of the courtroom and go home awaiting sentencing. This guy is a real crook and unlike the cocaine example on this page, the crime committed WAS NOT A VICTUMLESS CRIME. For $11 Billion, he should have been lead out in handcuffs and leg irons and thrown into a maximium security lockup awaiting his sentencing.

[Teplukin]

Even assuming that Ebbers is guilty cause of his his negligence, I do think making him go to prison is rather extreme. After all, he is a man of the community

This is what I suggest.

A hefty fine, barring him from being a corporate officer ever again, and making him do communtiy service. That would be more humane towards Ebbers.

Prison is for miscreants who committ violent crimes.

[higgmeister]

his second biggest mistake was retaining the MCI hierarchy

That is just wrong! Clinton controlled the takeover of MCI with an iron hand (Clinton MS not Bubba). We watched the MCI hierarchy constantly falling like flies. Many bailed out when they saw how idiotic Bernie's leadership was. Bernie never managed anything. He just got rid of all the former MCI persons and put WorldCom persons in charge. There were many companies he had taken over before MCI yet were still operating as separate entities such as MFS, WilTel, LDDS, UUNET, etc. For a long time the sales force of WorldCom legacy companies were actively competing against MCI sales people and accounts, the left hand picking the right hand's pocket. The incompetent Clinton fools ultimately found they were the snake swallowing the elephant. Bernie and his gang had no idea how to train an elephant.

Things are much better now. We are one company for the most part and Michael Capellas even brought back a couple of the former MCI executives. For that matter, he even kept some of the former WorldCom executives that weren't involved in the scandal. Oh, and the reason Michael Capellas is worth his bonus is that in the face of all odds he kept us from going under completely.

[orlop9]

Things are much better now.
Yeah right, Quest is a real charm of an investment.
Oh, and the reason Michael Capellas is worth his bonus is that in the face of all odds he kept us from going under completely.
Are you serious? Capellas is getting credit for a bunch of folks hard work, but the reason your company didn't go down is that the US Gov couldn't allow it to, nobody could allow it to happen. Do you even know how much traffic, corporate & gov, your nets handle? Your company IS too big of an elephant to die off before it can be replaced.

Don't get the wrong idea though, like I said, I think Bernie knew, but there is a lot more to the story than you know.