WorldCom executive pleads guilty msnbc.com
Ex-director answers conspiracy to commit fraud charges
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK, Oct. 10 — Another WorldCom executive pleaded guilty Thursday to charges stemming from a federal probe of the company’s multibillion-dollar accounting scandal.
BETTY VINSON, THE FORMER director of management reporting, entered her plea to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud in U.S. District Court in Manhattan before Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck.
Later in the day, another plea was expected from Troy Normand, the Director of Legal Entity Accounting. Both Normand and Vinson had worked in the company’s General Accounting Department.
Prosecutors had filed court papers in August indicating the pair would plead guilty.
Their pleas came just three days after their immediate boss, Buford Yates, admitted guilt to his role in the scheme as part of a deal to cooperate with prosecutors.
Yates’ direct supervisor, ex-Controller David Myers, has also pleaded guilty.
In their pleas in Manhattan federal court, both Myers and Yates said the orders to falsify WorldCom’s ledgers came from the top levels of corporate management.
All four defendants are expected to provide evidence against former chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, who has been indicted but maintained his innocence in the case.
Prosecutors are also collecting evidence to determine what ex-CEO Bernard Ebbers knew about the large-scale fraud.
An indictment filed by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office estimates the scheme helped hide roughly $3.8 billion in expenses and overstate earnings by $5 billion.
WorldCom officials have said the total amount of financial misstatements is around $7 billion, and some reports have put the figure at $9 billion.
Prosecutors say Vinson and Normand carried out orders from Sullivan and Myers to disguise the $3.8 billion in operating expenses as capital expenses.
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“As Sullivan, Myers, Yates, Vinson and Normand well knew, there was no justification in fact or under generally accepted accounting principles for these entries,” according to the indictment.
Sullivan, who is free on $10 million bond. Sullivan’s lawyer, Irv Nathan, has said his client is a victim of a “rush to judgment.” |
