Bernard Ebbers

Cynthia Cooper, the head of internal audit, led the team that identified forty-nine prepaid capacity entries totaling dollar three point eight billion across two thousand and one and the first quarter of two thousand and two.

Bernard Ebbers, the chief executive, received twenty-five years in prison in two thousand and five, and he was released in December two thousand and nineteen because of declining health.

Government action shaped the setting in which WorldCom operated.

The Telecommunications Act of nineteen hundred and ninety-six created a race among new carriers to build and acquire capacity, and WorldCom grew through acquisitions that reached its dollar thirty-seven billion purchase of MCI in nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, a transaction the Justice Department approved after requiring the sale of MCI's Internet backbone business.

On July 8th, 2002, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing.

Here's former WorldCom president and CEO Bernie Ebbers.

Although I would like more than you know to answer the questions that you and your colleagues have about WorldCom, I've been instructed by my counsel not to testify based on my Fifth Amendment constitutional rights.

After careful consideration, I have decided to follow my counsel's instruction, even though I do not believe I have anything to hide in these or any other proceedings.

I respectfully will not answer questions based upon my Fifth Amendment right to the United States Constitution

ConstitutionI ask that the rec- the record, uh, be entered for my counsel's, uh, written letter this morning, uh, to the committee.

Here's an exchange Bernie Ebbers and Scott Sullivan both had with independent congressman Bernie Sanders.

Thank you, Mr.