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with MCI Communications Corp. ($40 billion)—the largest in history at that time—Brooks Fiber Properties Inc. ($1.2 billion) and CompuServe Corp ($1.3 billion).
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SEC requested data from the firm about a range of financial reporting topics, including (1) disputed bills and sales commissions, (2) a 2000 charge against earnings related to wholesale customers, (3) accounting policies for mergers, (4) loans to the CEO, (5) integration of WorldCom’s computer systems with those of MCI, and (6) WorldCom’s tracking of Wall Street analysts’ earnings expectations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HjXHwvDLlw
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WorldCom cuts 3,700 jobs in the U.S. which was 4% of their overall workforce.
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CEO Bernard Ebbers resigned, with stock prices plummeting and the SEC's continued probe about his personal loans. Vice Chairman John Sidgmore takes over the position.
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Standard & Poor drops WorldCom's credit rating to junk status.
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WorldCom says it will exit the wireless resale business and will cut jobs to reduce expenses and pare massive debts.
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WorldCom fires its chief financial officer after uncovering improper accounting of $3.8 billion in expenses that covered up a net loss for 2001 and the first quarter of 2002. The company also says it will cut 17,000 jobs, more than 20 percent of its workforce.
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Nasdaq market halts trading in WorldCom's two tracking stocks, WorldCom Group and MCI Group. Shares of WorldCom touched as low as 9 cents before the halt. President George W. Bush calls for full investigation of the matter.
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WorldCom reveals that an internal investigation has uncovered questionable accounting practices stretching back as far as 1999.
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Former top WorldCom executives Bernard Ebbers and Scott D. Sullivan refuse to answer questions posed by a congressional committee.
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A congressman tells the news media that former WorldCom Inc. chief financial officer Scott D. Sullivan told company lawyers that he informed ex-chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers about bookkeeping maneuvers that made the company look more healthy than it really was.
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WorldCom files for bankruptcy protection, listing some$107 billion in assets and $41 billion in debt, on a consolidated basis as of March 31, the largest such filing in U.S. history. CEO Sidgmore says the company plans to emerge from protection within 9 to 12 months. The company will have access to up to $2 billion in funding but does not plan to tap all of it.
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WorldCom's former Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan and former Controller David Myers are arrested for their role in the scandal. The two were charged in a seven-count complaint accusing them of securities fraud and filing false statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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WorldCom's internal auditors have uncovered an additional $3.8 billion in improper accounting, doubling the amount of its known accounting errors to more than $7.6 billion over the past two years.
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Salomon Smith Barney, the investment banking firm, discloses that it rewarded some WorldCom executives with IPO stock. Critics said the practice raises concerns because it could amount to an improper reward for WorldCom officials for bringing lucrative banking business to Salomon. The WorldCom executives were able to reap financial gain from selling the IPO stock. WorldCom founder Bernard Ebbers and former CFO Scott Sullivan received shares, according to subsequent news reports.
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WorldCom Inc.'s former controller, David F. Myers, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Myers is the first WorldCom executive to fall in the largest accounting scandal in U.S. history.
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Buford Yates Jr., WorldCom Inc.'s former accounting director, pleads guilty to two counts of securities fraud and conspiracy.
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SEC expands fraud case against WorldCom Inc., with claims that the company's improper bookkeeping dates back to at least 1999, totaling over $9 billion in fraudulent activity.
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WorldCom reaches initial settlement with SEC, in which the company must continue to submit to federal oversight. The question still remains whether the company will be subject to a fine.
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WorldCom unveils reorganization plan that would erase most of its debt, rename the company after its long-distance unit, MCI, and move its headquarters from Clinton, Miss., to Ashburn, Va.
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Former CFO, Scott D. Sullivan, pleads not guilty today to securities and bank fraud.
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WorldCom agrees to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges.
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A federal judge approves a $750 million settlement between WorldCom and federal regulators.
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Sources say the Justice Department is investigating allegations that WorldCom improperly rerouted long-distance calls.
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WorldCom tells a federal bankruptcy court that preliminary results from an internal investigation found no evidence that the long-distance telephone company tried to disguise the origin of calls or route them improperly to avoid paying fees to local phone companies.
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WorldCom appoints former AT&T Corp. executive Richard R. Roscitt as its new president and chief operating officer.
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Oklahoma Attorney General W.A. Drew Edmondson files criminal charges against WorldCom Inc. and six former executives, including founder Bernard J. Ebbers.
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Two groups of dissident creditors abandon their legal challenge to the company's reorganization plan in return for a combined payout of more than $400 million.
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AT&T Corp. agrees to drop objections in federal bankruptcy court to portions of WorldCom Inc.'s reorganization plan.
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WorldCom Inc. announces the appointment of a chief ethics officer who will report directly to the chief executive.
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MCI officially emerges from bankruptcy, 21 months after filing the largest Chapter 11 case in history.
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The lead plaintiff in the WorldCom class-action suit formally announces a $54 million settlement covering 10 former WorldCom directors.
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A federal judge rejects part of a groundbreaking settlement in which 10 former WorldCom directors agreed to pay $54 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit.
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Former WorldCom Inc. chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers is found guilty of conspiracy, securities fraud and making false filings with regulators.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/15/cx_da_0315ebbersguilty.html
