The financial world was rocked by accounting scandals in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Companies such as Enron‚ Global Crossing and Tyco International collapsed under the weight of fraud and destroyed investor confidence in corporate accounting. But the biggest collapse was that of WorldCom. In 1983 Bernie Ebbers and several other people invested in a newly formed company in Clinton‚ Mississippi called Long Distance Discount Services‚ Inc. (LDDS). LDDS was a provider of long distance telephone
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An Ethical Dilemma at WorldCom: A case study of Cynthia Cooper The Scenario One May afternoon‚ while sitting in his cubicle at WorldCom Inc. headquarters located in Clinton‚ Mississippi‚ Gene Morse was stunned to find an accounting entry for $500 million in expenses‚ which was not accounted for with any invoices. He immediately reported this entry to his boss‚ vice president of internal audit Cynthia Cooper (Pulliam & Solomon‚ 2002). Little did they know at the time that this discovery would begin
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WorldCom Case Study: Lack of Leadership‚ Lack of Ethics Emily Fearnow ORG 500- Foundations of Effective Management Colorado State University – Global Campus Dr. Cheryl Lentz May 15‚ 2011 WorldCom Case Study: Lack of Leadership‚ Lack of Ethics A multitude of choices made by executives at WorldCom led to the ultimate demise of the company as it was previously known‚ the employees and their livelihoods’‚ and the trust of the American people. In a time when corporations
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The WorldCom Accounting Scandal WorldCom was started in Mississippi as a long distance telephone service provider in 1983 (Lyke and Jickling‚ 2). Over the next decade and a half‚ the company expanded to offer a whole range of telecommunication services through a series of mergers and acquisitions (Lyke and Jickling‚ 2). At its height‚ WorldCom was the largest long distance phone company in the United States and was one of the leading companies in the telecommunication market in the world‚ providing
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Review of Accounting Ethics – Worldcom ACC557 Financial Accounting Cornelia H. Brown Strayer University Review of Accounting Ethics - Worldcom In a business world pressured to meet organizational objectives such as high revenue growth it is not alarming that conduct by decision makers may be deemed as questionable practices. These practices within the past two decades have resulted in a number of organizations finding themselves confronted with ethical dilemmas and the aftermath
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3) Roots of the scandal The roots of the fraud and the role of internal auditors As explained above‚ the fraud was implemented by the former CEO Bernard Ebbers and commited by his financial director Scott D. Sullivan. The technique used by Worldcom was pretty simple; indeed‚ he cooked the books by saving pure operating expenses such as maintenance network in capital expenditure instead of expenses in order to hide its decreasing earnings and to maintain the price of Worldcom’s stock. In summary
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Creative accounting refers to accounting practices that seem to follow the letter of the applicable accounting standards but deviate from the spirit of those standards. It is the use of accounting methods to hide aspects of a company’s financial dealings in order to make the company appear more or less successful than it is in reality. In other words‚ Creative accounting is the transformation of financial accounting figures from what they actually are to what preparers desire by taking advantage
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The 10 biggest frauds in recent U.S. History Enron: The energy company’s bankruptcy in 2001 after allegations of massive accounting fraud wiped out $78 billion in stock market value and led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. A class action settlement of $7.185 billion was the largest of all time. Former President Jeff Skilling is serving a 24 year sentence. Bernard Madoff: New York money manager Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme‚ the
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Accounting Fraud: A White Collar Crime Accounting Fraud: A White Collar Crime The CEO and CFO of a Swiss security systems company named Tyco‚ stole 150 million dollars from their company before being caught in 2002. At the height of the scandal‚ the CEO threw a 2 million dollar birthday party for his wife on a private island with guest performer Jimmy Buffet. After being caught‚ the CEO and CFO were sentenced to 8-25 years in prison and Tyco had to repay its investors 2.92 billion dollars (The
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Enron and WorldCom Case Study This report is based on the demise of Enron Corporation and WorldCom. Both the firms are demised due to the ethical lapses. These ethical lapses come into existence when managements of the firm‚ uses unethical practices to accomplish the goals of the firm. Maintaining financial and accounting standards in the business practices are necessary. The profession of accounting has become a mockery due to the accounting scandals that took place all over the world in the
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