RIP Bernard Ebbers, Former WorldCom CEO and Convicted Felon
So, ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers died on Sunday at age 78. His death wasn’t a complete shock; I saw recently that he was in ill health and was granted an early release from prison after serving 13 years of his 25-year sentence for securities fraud, conspiracy, and filing false reports with regulators. My mom used […]
Let’s Talk About Thrifting For Accounting Swag
Surely I am not the only one who has an extensive collection of Federal Reserve tchotchkes and various items of accounting memorabilia. In fact, I seem to recall the very first post I ever read written by Colin on his now abandoned blog being about accounting tchotchkes and that he has since recycled the topic […]
Arthur Andersen’s Bones Still Have Some Meat on Them
Hey, an extra $38 million for the WorldCom fiasco is an extra $38 million: Two law firms, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP and Barrack Rodos & Bacine, announced the proposed settlement Monday. They noted that the lead plaintiff previously achieved settlements with various defendants in the case for over $6.1 billion plus interest to […]
Why Yes, Cleaning Up an Enormous Accounting Fraud Is as Bad as You Might Imagine
Before she became CFO of AES (and now Gannett), Victoria Harker had the distinct pleasure of mopping the floor at WorldCom after the company imploded in 2002 and, yeah, it was pretty awful: What has been your worst day on the job?The WorldCom meltdown was likely the worst day on the job. I knew only how little […]