Bernard Ebbers was the WorldCom chief executive convicted for his role in the company’s accounting fraud.
Ebbers co-founded WorldCom and became its chief executive in 1985. During the late 1990s, the company expanded rapidly through acquisitions, including MCI. When growth slowed, WorldCom executives improperly treated billions of dollars in ordinary line costs as capital investments, making expenses appear smaller and profits appear larger.
The fraud became public in 2002 after an internal audit uncovered irregularities. WorldCom filed for bankruptcy protection that year, then emerged under the name MCI before being acquired by Verizon. The scandal was one of the largest accounting failures in U.S. corporate history.
A jury convicted Ebbers in 2005 on conspiracy, securities fraud, and false-regulatory-filing charges. He received a 25-year sentence, later reduced, and died in 2019. Scott Sullivan, WorldCom’s chief financial officer, also pleaded guilty and testified against him.