Introduction By June 2002‚ it had become evident to the SEC that WorldCom had engaged in a significant corporate accounting fraud scheme which had overstated pretax income by about $7 billion since 1999. At the time‚ this was the largest deliberate misstatement in US corporate history. Although there are many interesting elements and players involved with this incident‚ for the purpose of this case study I will focus on the role played by Betty Vinson‚ the Director of Management Reporting and
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The Accounting Scandal Enron Corp. Collapse and WorldCom Accounting Scandal 11/18/2020 The Enron Corp. collapse Formed in 1985 from a merger of Houston Natural Gas and Inter-north‚ Enron Corp. was the first nationwide natural gas pipeline network. Over time‚ the firm’s business focus shifted from the regulated transportation of natural gas to unregulated energy trading markets. The guiding principle seems to have been that there was more money to be made in buying and selling financial
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Information This report details the rise and collapse of WorldCom Group: this telecommunication giant employed 60‚000 individuals and had over $104 billion in assets. However‚ most numbers were deliberately misstated in order to maximize income and survive in the global stock market. WorldCom dates back to 1983 when in split up from AT&T to create a separate entity in order to take over the Southern states telecommunication markets. WorldCom focused on providing Long Distance Discount Services (LDDS)
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Enron was America ’s seventh largest corporation. Enron gave the illusion that it was a steady company with good revenue but that was not 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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WorldCom Ethical Scandal In the late 1990’s‚ WorldCom was a successful company and leader in the telecommunications world. They had merged with MCI and the company was regarded for being innovative and growth hungry. However‚ in the midst of all the mergers WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebberly began to mismanage the company. WorldCom was no longer meeting their numbers and it looked like stock prices would fall. Rather than letting this happen‚ executives at WorldCom doctored the books. CFO Scott
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Worldcom appeared to be a great success story. However‚ the success began to unravel with the accumulation of debt and expenses‚ the fall of the stock market‚ and long distance rates and revenue. It would take 2 years for the extent of these problems to become public‚ and accounting scandals like that of Worldcom would make history in the finance and telecommunication areas. While the intent is to make money to benefit a person or a group of people through illegal acts while disguising their illegal
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Assignment # 3 WorldCom Accounting Fraud By Mark A. Cowan Strayer University ACC 499- Accounting Capstone May 15‚ 2011 The purpose of this paper is to discuss the aspects of the WorldCom accounting scandal and the effects that this scandal had on the accounting world as we know it. We will discuss the corporate culture at WorldCom and how it contributed to the accounting fraud‚ how the CEO’s desire to be the #1 stock on Wall Street contributed to the fraud‚ pressures on accountants to book
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CASE NAME: WorldCom: Keeping Planes In the Air 1. Briefly describe the important aspects of the situation. WorldCom had asked its accountant to make accounting entries dipping into reserves to help the company to meet its earnings target. WorldCom had been done these financial reserves for three quarters and intended to do so thereafter. The telecommunications industry was in a severe slump. WorldCom had a slow growth and rising cost. Vinson‚ who had done WorldCom’s accounting
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Q 1 Explain the nature of accounting fraud? A1. Background: The origin of WorldCom can be traced to the breakup of AT&T in 1983. The company began as Long Distance Discount Services Inc during 1983. LDD name was changed to WorldCom in 1995. To build the economies of scale that were critical success factor in long distance market it was imperative for WorldCom to grow its available volume off bandwidth as it lowered the per unit costs. Also the Telecommunication act of 1996 permitted long
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SUBJECT: Forensic Accounting Introduction In this memorandum‚ I will explain the reasons as to why managers feel more pressure than in past years. Also‚ I will discuss several ways that managers can commit fraud for personal gain‚ and how these schemes are eventually caught by forensic accountants. Rising Pressure There has been a growing trend to hold managers accountable for their company’s performance. Wall Street analysts have become enemies of CEOs. These analysts set target quarterly
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