Accounting Scandal of Worldcom - 940 Words

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING WORLDCOM How did it cook the books? Nguyen Bao Khanh Student ID: FB60162 Class: FB0662 May 19th, 2012 APENDIX 1. WorldCom’s accounting scandal 2. How did WORLDCOM cook its books? 3. Conclusion WORLDCOM headquarter in Virginia, USA. WORLDCOM’S ACCOUNTING SCANDAL WorldCom, established in 1983, whose CEO was Bernard Ebbers, was the second largest long distance phone company in the US after ATT. It could be seen as a pride of America until it got into one of the biggest accounting scandals in the American history which finally led to its bankruptcy in 2002. On July 21st, 2012, WorldCom filed for bankruptcy, which was worth 103.9 billion USD and became the largest filing at its time. Its CEO, Bernard†¦show more content†¦There would be no effect on current net income as increasing in Equipment means increasing in depreciation expense. Instead of being spent in the current year only, the cost is spread over many years. At the moment, you may have the general image of the tactics that WorldCom used to cook their books. WorldCom announced $3.8 billion in improperly booked expenses for 2001 and 2002, and an additional $3.3 billion in accounting errors. Moreover, WorldCom officially filed for bankruptcy when found an accounting fraud with the amount up to $11 billion. So how did it happen? As having mentioned, WorldCom’s CEO Bernard Ebbers was convicted of being guilty for the stock and accounting fraud, so it was obvious that the fraud occur from the management level of the company. WorldCom’s major operating expense was called line costs, which means cost paid to lease other telephone operators’ network, phone lines and so on. In short, just remember that line costs are its main operational expense. In 2000, WorldCom was actually not doing a good business, and they somehow tried to cover the current reality by performing some ‘magic’ with their accounting stuff, and here is the thing: WorldCom was managing to cover the truth behind its business, so according to his indictment, Mr. Scott Sullivan – former CFO – tried to move around the reserves forShow MoreRelatedAccounting Scandals. ENRON, WORLDCOM1894 Words   |  8 Pagesnot the case, a large part of Enron’s profits were made of paper. This was made possible by masterfully designed accounting and morally questionable acts by traders and executives. Deep debt and surfacing information about hiding losses gave the company big problems and in the late 2001 Enron declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. 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In the article World-Class Scandal At WorldCom by David Hancock he discusses how â€Å"The corporation was formed as a result of the fusion of WorldCom and MCI Communications corporations, and used the name MCI WorldCom for a while and was succeeded by the WorldCom Company, before changing its name on April 12, 2003, as part of the corporation s ending of their bankruptcy status.† WorldCom Inc. began as a small Mississippi telephone service provider of long distanceRead MoreBernard Ebbers And The Grand Success Of Worldcom1608 Words   |  7 Pagesco-founder of WorldCom. WorldCom was the second largest long distance phone company in the United States now known as MCI, because of the tremendous scandal that led to the company’s bankruptcy (Crawford, 2005). With the grand success of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers became one of the most powerful American businessman ever to face a criminal trial. 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