Why The Ceo Bernard Ebbers And The Cfo Scott Sullivan Committed Financial Statement Fraud

through the use of accrual releases and the capitalization of line costs. The corporate culture which was in part established by CEO Bernard J. Ebbers, the pressure to maintain an expense-to-revenue ratio that showed growth, and the lack of internal controls, corporate governance and individual responsibility, all helped contribute to the fall WorldCom. The fraud committed by WorldCom started in 1999, through the reversing of accruals that were associated with estimates of expected payments to line

9-104-071 REV: SEPTEMBER 14, 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

PART 11: PROBLEM OF STATEMENT Problem 1: Fraud Accounting Policies The fraud accounting practice is the main problem incurred at WorldCom. The company had focus more on increasing the revenues and acquiring capacity sufficient. As the market conditions was worst in 2000, it severe the pressure on WorldCom’s E/R ratio closely monitored by analyst and industry observer. Thus, the management must find out the solution to overcome it. Unfortunately, WorldCom had chosen the wrong and illegal ways to solve

and managers being ethical is a simple way of staying out of trouble, and is easier to distinguish between right and wrong. WorldCom was one of the biggest telecommunication company that our world h as seen and also had one of the largest accounting frauds in history. WorldCom was a company that did not stay ethical in their ways of doing business. In accounting, the ethical consideration is honesty. You want to help your client to pay as little tax as possible, but you also do not want to cheat the

THE ACCOUNTING FRAUD @ WORLDCOM: THE CAUSES, THE CHARACTERISTICS, THE CONSEQUENCES, AND THE LESSONS LEARNED by JAVIRIYAH ASHRAF A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Major Program in Accounting in the College of Business Administration and in The Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2011 Thesis Chair: Dr. Pamela Roush Abstract The economic prosperity of the late 1990s was characterized