BP Editors
WorldCom, created in the 80’s, grew to a communications giant in the late 90’s through a series of acquisitions and mergers. When WorldCom acquired MCI in 1999, they seemed poised for white collar greatness. Unfortunately, executive Bernard Ebbers had miscalculated, and the MCI deal hurt the company, which he hid with a variety of book cooking over easy. Oh and funny fact: Ebbers also borrowed $400 million from WorldCom to finance other businesses that made no money! Ebbers claimed he knew nothing about illegal practices within WorldCom, which means he was either the most dishonest or incompetent CEO in history. In 2005, a jury of his “peers” convicted him of conspiracy and fraud. The amount defrauded was around $11 billion. WorldCom filed for bankruptcy, and Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
