The WorldCom Accounting Scandal WorldCom was started in Mississippi as a long distance telephone service provider in 1983 (Lyke and Jickling‚ 2). Over the next decade and a half‚ the company expanded to offer a whole range of telecommunication services through a series of mergers and acquisitions (Lyke and Jickling‚ 2). At its height‚ WorldCom was the largest long distance phone company in the United States and was one of the leading companies in the telecommunication market in the world‚ providing
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Creative accounting refers to accounting practices that seem to follow the letter of the applicable accounting standards but deviate from the spirit of those standards. It is the use of accounting methods to hide aspects of a company’s financial dealings in order to make the company appear more or less successful than it is in reality. In other words‚ Creative accounting is the transformation of financial accounting figures from what they actually are to what preparers desire by taking advantage
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Review of Accounting Ethics – Worldcom ACC557 Financial Accounting Cornelia H. Brown Strayer University Review of Accounting Ethics - Worldcom In a business world pressured to meet organizational objectives such as high revenue growth it is not alarming that conduct by decision makers may be deemed as questionable practices. These practices within the past two decades have resulted in a number of organizations finding themselves confronted with ethical dilemmas and the aftermath
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SUBJECT: Accounting fraud at WorldCom Problem Statement WorldCom penetrated the largest accounting fraud in U.S history by overstating its tax income between 1999 and 2002. The main players in WorldCom’s accounting fraud included CFO Scott Sullivan‚ the General Accounting and Internal Audit departments‚ external auditor Arthur Andersen‚ and the board of directors. While individuals did have their own sins‚ employees cowardice and self-interested‚ the board passive and ineffective‚ external auditors
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WorldCom Sunday‚ November 07‚ 2010 10:27 PM The following entries are hypothetical and intended to illustrate the initial recording‚ and subsequent ‘release’ and ‘capitalization’ of line costs. a. Prepare a journal entry to record $3‚500 million of estimated line costs for quarter 1. DR - Accrued Line cost $3‚500 CR - Cash and Cash Equivalents $3‚500 b. Assume that you find out in quarter 2 that the prior quarter’s estimate was too large by $100 million. Prepare the necessary journal entry
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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‚ WorldCom Group‚ a telecommunications company
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Accounting Fraud at WorldCom LDDS began operations in 1984 offering services to local retail and commercial customers in the southern states. It was initially a loss making enterprise‚ and thus hired Bernie J. (Bernie) Ebbers to run things. It took him less than a year to make the company profitable. By the end of 1993‚ LDDS was the fourth largest long distance carrier in the United States. After a shareholder vote in May 1995‚ the company officially came to be known as WorldCom. WorldCom culture
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Accounting Fraud at WorldCom Vanessa Gail Woods Strayer University Connor-Green/ACC 576 March 21‚ 2010 Accounting Fraud at WorldCom The break up of AT&T opened the long distance service market to small companies during the mid- to late-1980s and 1990s. Long Distance Discount Service (LDDS) opened in 1983 with moderate growth until its stock went public in 1989. CEO Bernie Ebbers decided to grow the organization through acquisitions (70 companies over the course of its lifetime)
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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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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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