fraudulent accounting practices that led to the collapse of Worldcom. Other objectives of this paper will be to demonstrate how these activities were able to go undetected. Also‚ what motives drove the individuals involved to commit these acts. And finally the ethical accounting issues involved. Worldcom got its start as a small discount long distance provider in Mississippi. Founded by Bernard Ebbers and a number of others the idea for Worldcom was simple‚ buy long distance services from larger companies
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tools required to act ethically. When an individual is asked to do something that they may even suspect would be detrimental to their livelihood‚ then they have all the rights given to them to not follow through with that action. In the case of Betty Vinson of WorldCom‚ while she had the clear understanding that her actions were wrong‚ she clearly kept personal financial safety ahead of her moral and ethical standards. This eventually translated into an even more detrimental result‚ which was jail time
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2007 ROBERT S. KAPLAN DAVID KIRON Accounting Fraud at WorldCom WorldCom could not have failed as a result of the actions of a limited number of individuals. Rather‚ there was a broad breakdown of the system of internal controls‚ corporate governance and individual responsibility‚ all of which worked together to create a culture in which few persons took responsibility until it was too late. — Richard Thornburgh‚ former U.S. attorney general1 On July 21‚ 2002‚ WorldCom Group‚ a telecommunications
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Shams University - Major Accounting - May 1999-Average Grade (GOOD). - General Certificate of Secondary Education (Thanawia Amma) from Yehia Al Rafaei Language School‚ 1995. Experience (Current Occupation: Financial Controller Responsibilities: 1. Monthly Closing & Management reporting • Full responsibility for the Monthly closing (production reports ‚ Inventory and financial results) • Full responsibility for the monthly management
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[1] What business was WorldCom in? WorldCom was in the business of telecommunications. Where was WorldCom located? WorldCom was located in Clinton‚ Mississippi. Who was the CEO? The CEO was Bernie Ebbers. Who was the CFO? The CFO was Scott Sullivan. What are the names of the two members of the internal audit staff who worked with Cynthia on their secret investigation? Gene Morse and Glyn Smith What made the internal auditors think that possibly there was a need to investigate WorldCom’s
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Case 6-3 Question 1: Westwood’s Gross Margin Percentage is calculated as (sales less cost of goods sold) as a percentage of net sales revenue. For Westwood it’s calculated as follows based on the financial statements (all in millions of dollars): 2010 Gross Margin: (2000-1100) = 900 2010 Sales Revenue = 2000 2010 Gross Margin Percentage = 45% 2009 Gross Margin: (1500 – 800) = 700 2009 Sales Revenue = 1500 2009 Gross Margin Percentage = 46.7% Westwood’s Pre-Tax Return on Sales
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Accounting Practices • $11 Billion Accounting Fraud over 3 years (1999 – 2002) by understatement of operating expenses of $7B through improper release of accruals and improper capitalization of operating expenses • management promoted culture fixed on the numbers • board of directors’ failure to scrutinize billion-dollar acquisitions • excessive loans to executives in order protect stock prices Financial Overview of WorldCom (in Billions) Financial Highlights 1994 1999 2001 2004 Revenues
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WorldCom was one of the leading telecommunication companies prior to its application for bankruptcy protection on July 21st‚ 2002. The firm’s decision to file for bankruptcy was a shocker move considering the amount of revenues and asset base the company had. It is believed that the firm was highly involved in fraudulent bookkeeping between the year 1999 and 2000 where they had managed to overstate its taxable income by at least $7 billion. It was also revealed that the company had committed itself
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Domain Controllers The solution implements 4 new Domain Controllers for the TRAVEL domain. These servers will eventually form the foundation of all Active Directory Services within RailCorp paving the way for decommission of all remaining Domain Controllers in both TRAVEL and BRIC domains. High level design points: • 2 domain controllers at IDC 2 servers for load balancing and site redundancy Domain Operations Master roles distributed between 2 servers Both servers configured
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typically handles the accounting activities such as corporate accounting‚ tax management‚ financial accounting and cost accounting. The duties of a financial controller vary depending on the size of the entity‚ number of accountants in the company and the difficulty of the accounting and financial operations. Their basic role of a financial controller is to be accountable for the accounting operations of the company. In this light they have to develop and maintain timely and accurate financial statements
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