EBBERS Faces 85 years in jail

[rigel99]

Ex-Chief of WorldCom Convicted of Fraud Charges
By KEN BELSON
New York TImes....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/business/15cnd-ebbers.html?ei=5094&en=b40c26ec5f12b2a2&hp=&ex=1110949200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1110924300-VaQRMvJq6E7TvjIfjq0sCg

Published: March 15, 2005

Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, was found guilty today on all nine counts of orchestrating a record $11 billion fraud that bankrupted his company.

Mr. Ebbers, 63, was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy and seven counts of filing false reports with regulators. He now faces up to life in prison, with the convictions collectively carrying a maximum penalty of 85 years in prison. Sentencing was set for June 13. He remains free on bail.

Mr. Ebbers, whose wife, Kristie, and daughter, Carly, sat behind him dabbing their eyes as the verdict was read, showed no emotion as he listened to the jury's decision from his seat at the defense table in the Manhattan federal courtroom. The jury of seven women and five men had been in deliberations since March 4.

<Snip>

The verdict is a major victory for the government, which has stepped up efforts to crack down on corporate fraud in recent years. Both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission strengthened their enforcement divisions in the process, and their pursuit of Mr. Ebbers, who was indicted a year ago, was representative of that aggressive approach.

******
Wow. Sometimes we get this kind of news and feel there are still some honest folks out there willing to prosecute criminal behaviour. I guess Bernie won't be singing in his church and praising his 'charitable deeds' this sunday in his little Mississippi home town.

All of corporate America must have had a very big shudder today and there are probably wondering when they will be next.

ON BEHALF OF HELEN and others of my friends who lost a fortune in MCI stock, I am happy the SEC & US Government have finally grown a backbone regarding Corporate fraud.

Now how do we get Diebold under similar investigation?

[displacedtexan]

1. A major victory for the government? What a crock!

Had millions of Americans not cried foul, these corporate pirates would still be robbing us!

[bluestateguy]

2. I think he deserves the death penalty

I'm serious.

[rigel99]

4. wow... that's awesome

but first, let's get all his money and give it back to all the poor souls who lost their ENTIRE 401K / retirement on MCI.

now that MCI is back on its feet again somewhat, how is MCI / the government going to repair the damage made to shareholders...

it's too easy to make one guy the scapegoat... 100's of people had to collaborate with ebbers... what about their accounting firm, why not bankrupt all the accounting firms that give Sullivan and Ebbers the good consulting advice to evade taxes to evade paying employees, to evade honest business practices...

but yeah, I'm not generally a death penalty kind of person, but in this case, I might reconsider.....

[taught_me_patience]

12. I agree...

he is responsible for the financial ruin of thousands of people.

taught.

[VelvetMonkeyWrench]

3. were it only true...

More likely is about 3 years at some "Club Fed" facility like the one at Eglin AFB. No cells, tennis, bocci courts, designer jeans, etc.. The swimming pool was filled in though after that notorious pic of John Mitchel lounging in years ago surfaced.

[Old Deuteronomy]

5. And yet...

the Shrub murders 1500 plus of our own people and he is free to roam the white house drunk.

[rigel99]

6. that's funny....

maybe when we impeach him and then bring shrub up on criminal charges, he and Bernie can share a cell and be 'cellmates' so shrub can finally have his 'mandate'....

[Old Deuteronomy]

9. I have longed for that...

but do you REALLY think there is ever any HOPE at all of impeaching that sorry scumbag?

[rigel99]

10. yup...

I give him about 6 more months...

guckert,
election fraud

other stuff!!!
it's all adding up. it will take the CIA getting pissed at Rumsfeld's power grab to start the ball rolling. my prediction, here on DU is that a justice department (low down the totem pole) guy will start investigate everything...

keep your fingers crossed....

[Old Deuteronomy]

11. I sure do hope...

you are right... he deserves jail time at the very least... but so many say it will never happen to THIS "sitting" resident... so.. I say stand him up and do it...LOL... just get it done... www.votetoimpeach.com does not really give a lot of hope...

[rigel99]

7. who wants to bet he flees the country????

with his millions, he's as good as gone.... no more bernie... he'll be on some beach starting another hotel Long Distance company, you know the kind, in mexico or somewhere that when you make a long distance call you get your hotel bill and the 2 minute call is more than the cost of the hotel room..

come on... bernie is comic relief to the failing telecommunications industry... who else can they blame their ballooning debt and loss of customers on????

[KG]

8. obviously, ebbers wasn't 'connected'

[rigel99]

17. did you mean

connected as in wirelessly or broadband connected or connected to the Bushco fascist gang of thugs?

i still wonder if a white house phone call will reverse all this, it's bad business for the US to tell it's new landlord (corporate america) they will be held accountable for their heinous crimes against the people...

[JHB]

13. "Faces" is one thing, "Serves" is another...

...and then there's pardons...

This is a victory, but it doesn't win the war.

[katinmn]

14. I wonder how many months he'll serve, if any

The bigger the crime, the less the chance they will go to jail.

[rigel99]

15. this looks serious... HE's In for big time in the slammer

I can see by the look in his eyes that he has tried to wiggle every which way and still has gotten a conviction. I think this is for keeps, this conviction.

the Government took the fall of MCI/worldcom personally because so many of their networks depended on their backbone, at one time, MCI was the fastest / best network in the country after their UUNet acquisition. It has been hard for folks who built MCI a once very awesome fun company to work with that at least some ethics and a soaring stock price to watch ebbers turn it into a debt hole.

no, I think ebbers is going to jail unless he skips out. I truly hope they put a band on his leg, cause I would hate for America to feel any more ripped off than we already feel.....

[rigel99]

16. somewhat ethical

is qualified by the caveat, before the 'friends and family' campaign which was a license to get your family mad at you and backfired on them famously.... it was a kind of friends/family network marketing scheme that just really ended up pissing off their customers...

the same theme is happening in cellworld now with family minutes..
I just had a friend say, 'call me on my cell from your cell cause that's free to me', and I said, 'no way, I have unlimited landline long distance, and I don't want to use my cell minutes'.

so it's still a world of telcos selling minutes instead of communication..... I bet ya they would make more money off me if they truly sold communication......

[katinmn]

21. I hope you're right n/t

[spanone]

18. Not enough.

[RetroLounge]

19. Great, now what about Ken Lay?

RL

[ck4829]

20. Bring Ken Lay to justice!

[rigel99]

22. Yes, it's time..can we add a few more.. pretty pleeez....

time for Ken Lay too...

and while we're at it, because I"m on the election reform side of the world, can we please add
CHOICEPOINT Executives....
and old ES&S Execs....
Walden O' Dell of Diebold....
(Bob Urosevich and his brother too wouldn't hurt)!!!

to the stack....

a nice little set of SEC investigations to last thru the middle of this century!

and then of course, there's Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld.... surely there is some leftover jailtime left for them.....