another one bites the dust

[greedy_lars]

Scandalized WorldCom Near Collapse
Wed Jun 26, 1:29 PM ET
By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Business Writer

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - WorldCom Inc. spiraled toward the brink of bankruptcy after the communications giant reported it had disguised $3.8 billion in expenses. The news dragged down the stock markets Wednesday, and President Bush ( news - web sites) said the federal government would investigate.

It is one of the largest in a series of accounting scandals that have shaken faith in corporate America.

WorldCom, which owns the nation's No. 2 long-distance carrier MCI, said late Tuesday that more than $3 billion of expenses in 2001 and $797 million in the first quarter of 2002 were wrongly listed on company books as capital expenses, thus not reflected in its earnings results.

That means the company may have actually lost millions of dollars when it reported profits. The Clinton, Miss.-based company said it will restate earnings for all of 2001 and the first quarter of 2002.

Its auditor during that period was Arthur Andersen. The Chicago-based accounting firm, once one of the world's largest, was convicted of obstruction of justice earlier this month for its handling of documents related to now-bankrupt Enron Corp. It has lost many of its clients since the Enron accounting scandal broke late last year.

WorldCom also announced that chief financial officer Scott Sullivan has been fired, and said it would lay off 17,000 workers beginning Friday.

source

good ole Arthur Andersen, aint they just something else? well no biggie, they are gonna lay off just `17,000 workers, so as to recoop bucks. the recessions over. yea right...