Question

Six WorldCom employees were convicted in the case. Which of these do you believe is the most responsible for the fraud? Why?

Answer 1

The 6 WorldCom employees convicted in the scandal were :

1. Bernard Ebbers -

He was one of the founders in 1983 and in 1985 became CEO of the company till 2002 (when he resigned). It was alleged that the financial woes by him had been the motivation which sparked the accounting scandal under his supervision. He had $400m excess in personal loans using Worldcom Stock as collateral

Bernard Ebbers was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the scandal.

2. Troy Normand - Former accountant for WorldCom

3. Betty Vinson - Former director of corporate accounting at WorldCom

4. Buford “Buddy” Yates - Former director of accounting at WorldCom

5. David Myers - He was the controller and VP of worldcom. He resigned in 2002 for his involvement in the improper accounting .

6. Scott Sullivan - He was the CEO and secretary of worldcom and was fired in June 2002 for his roll in improper accounting and was a close ally of Bernard Ebbers and was a witness to prosecution of Bernard

According to me, Bernard Ebbers was the mastermind and most responsible person for the fraud as he chose to perform crime to hide the low performing business of Worldcom. He wanted to save his personal assets as most of them consisted of worldcom stocks and he had $400 million loans from Worldcom.