“Our senior management team is shocked by these discoveries,” said John Sidgmore, WorldCom’s CEO of less than two months.
Sure, they are. The company had a $3.8 billion (with a B) accounting fraud. What are they shocked of? That someone let this out to the public? That they were in bed with Andersen and some impropriety was going on? That their earnings restatement will be the largest in the history of the world? That their company will eventually join the grave with Global Crossing and Enron? That they weren’t able to resign a little earlier like ex-CEO, Bernie Ebbers, did weeks before the scandal broke out? That they didn’t do a little savvy stock trade timing like Waksal did with ImClone? That it’s stock is now trading for less $1?
Shocked… Pleese! I can’t wait to hear from more senior managers from other companies on the brink of extinction how “shocked” they will be too.
Sources:
Yahoo
Economist
WP
CNN
Fox
MSNBC
CBS
SmartMoney
WCOM Stock
WorldCon Press Release
WorldCom Blog