Jury convicts Ebbers on all counts in fraud case
Not sure anyone cares but me (former employee) ... hope he fries!!!!
Jury convicts Ebbers on all counts in fraud case
Ex-WorldCom CEO could face 85 years; attorney vows appeal
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 2:36 p.m. ET March 15, 2005
Bernard Ebbers, a former junior high basketball coach who built WorldCom into a telecommunications giant, was convicted Tuesday of directing the biggest accounting fraud in U.S. corporate history, leaving thousands of investors empty-handed.
A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated eight days before dismissing Ebbers’ testimony that he knew nothing about the details behind the $11 billion securities fraud, which drove the company into the nation's largest corporate bankruptcy in 2002.
The jury convicted him on all charges — one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings. Ebbers, 63, could face up to 85 years in prison.
As the verdict was read, Ebbers’ face reddened. His wife, Kristie, and other family members broke into tears. Sentencing was set for June 13.
Ebbers made no comment as he left the courthouse, but his attorney Reid Weingarten vowed to appeal.
“The fight will continue,” Weingarten said, adding that the case was “riddled with reasonable doubt.” When asked for his client's reaction to the verdict, Weingarten said, “I’m sure he’s devastated.”
The conviction came more than two years after an internal auditor began asking questions about curious accounting at WorldCom, touching off a scandal that eventually unearthed $11 billion in erroneously declared revenues and expenses.
Prosecution testimony at the six-week trial portrayed Ebbers as obsessed with keeping WorldCom’s stock price high and panicked about $400 million in personal loans that were backed by his shares in the company.
The tall, bearded Ebbers gambled by taking the witness stand late in the trial, insisting he was unfamiliar with the details of accounting and knew nothing about the fraud taking place on his watch.
The conviction completes a staggering fall for Ebbers, who took a small long-distance company in Mississippi and merged with or acquired ever-larger companies, making him a Wall Street superstar and earning him the nickname 'Telecom Cowboy.'
The star witness against him was his former finance chief Scott Sullivan, who claimed Ebbers repeatedly ordered him to “hit our numbers” — a command, Sullivan said, to falsify the books to meet Wall Street expectations.
Sullivan, who pleaded guilty to fraud, admitted he essentially masterminded the scheme — but said he did it on the clear instructions of Ebbers, who ignored his repeated pleas that the adjustments were wrong.
With the entire telecom industry suffering a dot-com hangover, the fraud was driven by soaring “line costs” — the fees WorldCom paid to smaller local telephone carriers to use their networks.
Prosecutors said the fraud stretched from late 2000 until early 2002, sometimes amounting to nearly $1 billion per quarter in hidden expenses and improperly recognized revenue.
Pressure from the loans, the money he stood to lose and the power of the CEO’s job combined to form a “perfect storm of corruption” that drove Ebbers to commit fraud, prosecutor William Johnson said in his closing argument.
“He was WorldCom, and WorldCom was Ebbers,” the prosecutor told jurors. “He built the company. He ran it. Of course he directed this fraud.”
Ebbers disputed the testimony of Sullivan, saying he became aware of the fraud only in the summer of 2002, after he was asked to leave WorldCom.
“He’s never told me he made an entry that wasn’t right,” Ebbers said of Sullivan. “If he had, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Ebbers still faces civil litigation, including from the company, which backed up his $400 million in personal loans when Bank of America demanded more and more collateral as the stock price fell.
WorldCom, which was based in Clinton, Miss., was driven into bankruptcy — the largest in U.S. history — in the summer of 2002. It has since re-emerged as MCI Inc., based in Ashburn, Va.
The company struck a $750 million settlement with federal regulators to repay aggrieved investors, a small sum compared to the tens of billions of dollars of market capitalization that evaporated in the scandal.
Twelve former directors of the company, plus some investment banks that underwrote WorldCom securities and auditing firm Arthur Andersen, also face a civil trial brought by angry investors. That trial is set for late March.
Jury convicts Ebbers on all counts in fraud case
Ex-WorldCom CEO could face 85 years; attorney vows appeal
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 2:36 p.m. ET March 15, 2005
Bernard Ebbers, a former junior high basketball coach who built WorldCom into a telecommunications giant, was convicted Tuesday of directing the biggest accounting fraud in U.S. corporate history, leaving thousands of investors empty-handed.
A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated eight days before dismissing Ebbers’ testimony that he knew nothing about the details behind the $11 billion securities fraud, which drove the company into the nation's largest corporate bankruptcy in 2002.
The jury convicted him on all charges — one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings. Ebbers, 63, could face up to 85 years in prison.
As the verdict was read, Ebbers’ face reddened. His wife, Kristie, and other family members broke into tears. Sentencing was set for June 13.
Ebbers made no comment as he left the courthouse, but his attorney Reid Weingarten vowed to appeal.
“The fight will continue,” Weingarten said, adding that the case was “riddled with reasonable doubt.” When asked for his client's reaction to the verdict, Weingarten said, “I’m sure he’s devastated.”
The conviction came more than two years after an internal auditor began asking questions about curious accounting at WorldCom, touching off a scandal that eventually unearthed $11 billion in erroneously declared revenues and expenses.
Prosecution testimony at the six-week trial portrayed Ebbers as obsessed with keeping WorldCom’s stock price high and panicked about $400 million in personal loans that were backed by his shares in the company.
The tall, bearded Ebbers gambled by taking the witness stand late in the trial, insisting he was unfamiliar with the details of accounting and knew nothing about the fraud taking place on his watch.
The conviction completes a staggering fall for Ebbers, who took a small long-distance company in Mississippi and merged with or acquired ever-larger companies, making him a Wall Street superstar and earning him the nickname 'Telecom Cowboy.'
The star witness against him was his former finance chief Scott Sullivan, who claimed Ebbers repeatedly ordered him to “hit our numbers” — a command, Sullivan said, to falsify the books to meet Wall Street expectations.
Sullivan, who pleaded guilty to fraud, admitted he essentially masterminded the scheme — but said he did it on the clear instructions of Ebbers, who ignored his repeated pleas that the adjustments were wrong.
With the entire telecom industry suffering a dot-com hangover, the fraud was driven by soaring “line costs” — the fees WorldCom paid to smaller local telephone carriers to use their networks.
Prosecutors said the fraud stretched from late 2000 until early 2002, sometimes amounting to nearly $1 billion per quarter in hidden expenses and improperly recognized revenue.
Pressure from the loans, the money he stood to lose and the power of the CEO’s job combined to form a “perfect storm of corruption” that drove Ebbers to commit fraud, prosecutor William Johnson said in his closing argument.
“He was WorldCom, and WorldCom was Ebbers,” the prosecutor told jurors. “He built the company. He ran it. Of course he directed this fraud.”
Ebbers disputed the testimony of Sullivan, saying he became aware of the fraud only in the summer of 2002, after he was asked to leave WorldCom.
“He’s never told me he made an entry that wasn’t right,” Ebbers said of Sullivan. “If he had, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Ebbers still faces civil litigation, including from the company, which backed up his $400 million in personal loans when Bank of America demanded more and more collateral as the stock price fell.
WorldCom, which was based in Clinton, Miss., was driven into bankruptcy — the largest in U.S. history — in the summer of 2002. It has since re-emerged as MCI Inc., based in Ashburn, Va.
The company struck a $750 million settlement with federal regulators to repay aggrieved investors, a small sum compared to the tens of billions of dollars of market capitalization that evaporated in the scandal.
Twelve former directors of the company, plus some investment banks that underwrote WorldCom securities and auditing firm Arthur Andersen, also face a civil trial brought by angry investors. That trial is set for late March.
