Worldcom's Ebbers' character, business methods sowed seeds of disaster.

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Financial Times two-part series.


Before the fall: how, from the outset, Bernie Ebbers' character and business methods sowed the seeds of disaster.

By Thomas Catan, Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Juliana Ratner and Peter Thal Larsen

Published: December 19 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: December 19 2003 4:00


Less than a year ago, Bernard J. Ebbers presided over the second largest telecommunications company in the US, a legendary dealmaker with more than 70 acquisitions under his belt.

Today, Bernie - as the former head of WorldCom is known to friends and business associates - gets up each day in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and goes to work in a small house wedged between a travel agency and a Christian book shop.

<snip>


Just a short drive away lies Easthaven Baptist Church. An intensely religious man, Mr Ebbers was always careful to credit God for his success before his fall from grace. On a recent Sunday, he arrived at church wearing a black shirt and blue jeans and listened intently as Ron Carlson, president of Christian Ministries International, spoke of Christianity as the only "authentic faith in a world of counterfeits". Mr Ebbers still teaches Sunday School at his old church, First Baptist, where his ex-wife, Linda, is a member of the congregation.

"He is absolutely one of the most incredible human beings I have come in contact with," says Diana Day, who worked by Mr Ebbers' side for 18 years and now runs a recording studio with her husband in Nashville. "The Lord was his CEO, as he is all of ours."





more.....


Part one

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479201667&p=1012571727159


Part two

Ebbers' undoing: how the deals ran out, doubts set in and the house of cards fell down


http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479201693&p=1012571727159

Just a short drive away lies Easthaven Baptist Church. An intensely religious man, Mr Ebbers was always careful to credit God for his success before his fall from grace. On a recent Sunday, he arrived at church wearing a black shirt and blue jeans and listened intently as Ron Carlson, president of Christian Ministries International, spoke of Christianity as the only "authentic faith in a world of counterfeits". Mr Ebbers still teaches Sunday School at his old church, First Baptist, where his ex-wife, Linda, is a member of the congregation.

"He is absolutely one of the most incredible human beings I have come in contact with," says Diana Day, who worked by Mr Ebbers' side for 18 years and now runs a recording studio with her husband in Nashville. "The Lord was his CEO, as he is all of ours."


<snip>


Mr Ebbers and his family made personal contributions worth about $118,000 after 1989, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, a Washington watchdog group. During the same period, WorldCom and its employees contributed roughly $7.5m to political campaigns - not including a $1m donation to a "Leadership Institute" at the University of Mississippi set up by Trent Lott, the Senate Republican leader.


<snip>


"In 2000, they just pulled every rabbit out of the fraud book," that person says. "Bad debt was manipulated. Tax was manipulated. Everything they could do they did. But by the end of 2000, they had run out of tricks." Mr Sullivan "was trying to keep one step ahead of the undertaker".


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[Code_Name_D]

1. I smell another wave of corpret scandels comming on.

The CEO of Fready Mac was orderd to stand down by the regulators. So we have problems there too.