3) Roots of the scandal The roots of the fraud and the role of internal auditors As explained above‚ the fraud was implemented by the former CEO Bernard Ebbers and commited by his financial director Scott D. Sullivan. The technique used by Worldcom was pretty simple; indeed‚ he cooked the books by saving pure operating expenses such as maintenance network in capital expenditure instead of expenses in order to hide its decreasing earnings and to maintain the price of Worldcom’s stock. In summary
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the actions taken by WorldCom managers not detected earlier? What processes or systems should be in place to prevent or detect quickly the types of actions that occurred in WorldCom? The first reason is that both internal audit and external audit of WorldCom were not performing their role as intended. Generally‚ internal audit mainly focus on the reliability of financial reporting and the effectiveness of operations‚ and reports directly to the Board of Directors. In WorldCom‚ however‚ internal audit
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Question 1 At the time Cynthia Cooper discovered the accounting fraud‚ WorldCom did not have a whistle-blower hotline process in place. Instead‚ Cynthia took on significant risks when she stepped over Scott Sullivan’s head and notified the audit committee chairman of her findings. Discuss the key criteria for the operation of an effective corporate whistle-blower hotline. Be sure to highlight potential pitfalls that should be avoided and reference professional codes‚ legislation and academic
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a- i) According to SCON 6 article 25‚ assets are probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events. Assets has three characteristics: it embodies a probable future benefit that involves a capacity or in combination with other assets‚ to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash inflows‚ a particular entity can obtain the benefit and control others’ access to it and the transaction or other event giving rise to the
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An Ethical Dilemma at WorldCom: A case study of Cynthia Cooper The Scenario One May afternoon‚ while sitting in his cubicle at WorldCom Inc. headquarters located in Clinton‚ Mississippi‚ Gene Morse was stunned to find an accounting entry for $500 million in expenses‚ which was not accounted for with any invoices. He immediately reported this entry to his boss‚ vice president of internal audit Cynthia Cooper (Pulliam & Solomon‚ 2002). Little did they know at the time that this discovery would begin
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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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WorldCom Case Study Update 20061 by Edward J. Romar‚ University of Massachusetts-Boston‚ and Martin Calkins‚ University of Massachusetts-Boston Read the original case. In December 2005‚ two years after this case was written‚ the telecommunications industry consolidated further. Verizon Communications acquired MCI/WorldCom and SBC Communications acquired AT&T Corporation‚ which had been in business since the 19th Century. The acquisition of MCI/WorldCom was the direct result of the behavior
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Accounting Fraud at WorldCom 1) What are the pressures that lead executives and managers to “cook the books?” After the rapid evolution of the telecommunication industry in the 1990s‚ WorldCom shifted its strategy to focus on building revenues and acquiring capacity sufficient to handle expected growth. Their biggest goal was to be the No. 1 stock on Wall Street rather than capturing the market share. As a result‚ their Expense-to-Revenue (E/R) Ratio was their measurement for their main objective
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The WorldCom scandal was actually brought to light by the internal auditor‚ Cynthia Cooper. Cooper and her team‚ Gene Morse and Glyn Smith uncovered the fact that line costs were being transferred to capital accounts. Cooper was originally tipped off to the fact that something was amiss when the head of WorldCom’s wireless business paid her a visit‚ upset that he was loosing $400 million that had been set aside to make up for shortfalls if customers didn’t pay their bills. Scott Sullivan‚ CFO of
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06 – Whistleblower‚ Product Safety vs. Animal Rights Whistleblower 70-85 * Whistleblowing is a new label generated by awareness of ethical conflicts encountered at work. They sound an alarm in the organization that threatens public interest * Whistleblowing has high stakes * Moral conflicts on several levels whether to speak out about abuses or risks or serious neglect * Things to consider? - ARGUMENTS * Is speaking out in fact in the public interest * Does speaking
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