Former WorldCom CEO seeks clemency
WorldCom's former CEO Bernard Ebbers is seeking clemency from George Bush in the final days of his presidency.
Bernie Ebbers
(Credit: CBS News)Ebbers, who was convicted of helping mastermind an $11 billion accounting fraud, is asking the president to reduce his 25-year sentence. Ebbers has filed a petition for commutation to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. And the petition is under review, a Justice Department spokeswoman told Reuters.
The U.S. Constitution grants the president the power to pardon convicted felons either erasing their convictions or reducing their prison sentences. And it's common in the last days of an administration for criminals of all stripes to seek clemency from the president.
Reuters said Bush has already granted 14 pardons and commuted two sentences in low-profile cases. But the news service points out that Bush has so far granted far fewer clemency requests than his predecessor, former President Clinton.
An expert cited in the Reuters article said it's a tough time for white collar convicts to ask for clemency given the state of the U.S. economy. I'd have to agree. I think it would be very difficult for the U.S. public to accept leniency for a man that caused thousands of people to lose their retirement funds. Especially, when the U.S. government is spending billions of dollars to bailout banking executives, who many suspect also gamed the system for their own benefit.
Ebbers founded the telecommunications company WorldCom, which grew to become a darling on Wall Street in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Early in 2002, things started to unravel at the company, and a massive accounting scandal was uncovered. Billions of dollars in market value vanished almost overnight. The Mississippi-based company filed for the largest bankruptcy protection in U.S. history in the summer of 2002. The company, which was renamed MCI, was later sold to Verizon Communications.
In 2005, Ebbers was convicted of fraud and conspiracy for his role in the scandal. And he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ebbers, who is now 67, isn't expected to be released from prison until 2027 when he will be 85.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
Stewpid people who don't understand how the money supply works is bounded by their ignorance to spew stewpid comment like this.
Ebbers is complicit in producing the false information that led to the sentiment that led to the selling of shares. Are you suggesting it be better for shareholders of record to have held on to the shares at their inflated values while others get out to stem any losses?
By the way, most people who sold shares were COMMON STOCKHOLDERS. The share price would NOT have been saved by them holding their shares because Verizon never would have purchased the organizations assets for any more than it did. If anything, any takeover buyers would've shorted Worldcom just to enable smooth M&A. Liquidation provided some value, but only to owners of preferred shares.
Worldcom collapsed, not because of the rapid drop in share price, but because of Ebbers malfeasance! He is responsible for this, not the shareholders and does not deserve clemency. Thanks for trying to explain the irrelevant, though. Hell, I'd tack on a few extra years to his sentence just for him having riled up those he's harmed by asking for a pardon. The old bastard has been given already mercy by not being beaten publicly by everyone he's screwed. He should die in prison just like any other criminal who commits such an act. His sentence was light considering the size of his crime. Not only did he commit the crime, he did it deliberately. Stick to the topic, stop badgering everyone, learn to spell (or learn to use spellcheck), and get your head out of Ebbers' ...
This is like a Texas hold 'em game. A guy who has so much money that no matter how good ones hand is, he out raise the opponents and win every time. The stock market is like that. The ones with the bigger capital, wins. How can a stock goes from $92 to $2 in less than one week?!? This means that the capital invested in Worldcom was so liquid that shareholders (investors) can switch side at will to destroy the company.
I don't fault anyone for this. This is how the stock market works. Fundamental of company does not matter. What matter is how well one plays his capital. How can Apple garner $82B in market cap, when their annual revenue is less than $34B?!? It will take Apple 12 more years to reach $82B in revenue.
That's how rig the stock market is. People like to have an scapegoat for their stupidity so they feel better. I fault them for that because it causes a lot more problem to society and to others. Humansssssssssssssssssssssss!!!
Of course, you can also blame the stockholders and the system for letting it happen again and again without anyone ever learning that the stock market is an environment that is fertile ground for the corrupt and greedy, and should be closely monitored for this kind of stuff and severely punished.
Sure they have a "code of ethics" and laws to prevent it, but when a stock is seeming to do amazingly well, people tend to turn a blind eye to such outdated codes of conduct. Shareholders don't care because it looks like they're doing extremely well, politicians don't care because it looks fantastic for the economy, and lawmakers are usually a combination of both, if not outright bribed by those companies.
I think there should be a harsher penalty for people like him. If you intentionally end a single person's life in a fit of rage, you get life. If you intentionally absolutely and systematically ruin and destroy thousands of peoples lives by taking their trusted money that they spent years saving up, you get a slap on the wrist. (Yes, I think 25 years is a slap on the wrist considering the number of lives he destroyed). If the business legitimately went under, then yes, it happens, no blame on him. But the fact is that he lied, cheated, and deliberately did his utmost to steal the shareholders' money.
If Hitler did what he did to the Jewish people (ie, take their homes, their property, locked them up, starve them) but didn't kill them, should he have gotten 50 years in prison with a chance to be pardoned or have his sentence reduced?
Swings in share prices do not destroy a company. Management decisions do. Ebbers' operative methods destroyed WorldCom.
While I don't think Ebbers deserves clemency, it does seem like people who have committed even worse crimes are still on the loose. Like the Wall Street mandarins who have cost the US taxpayer $700 billion. That's a far bigger crime than what Ebbers did at Worldcom.
If people put money in the bank, they should know that in America, we have fractional reserving banking. If people put money in mutual funds, they should know that it is NOT SAFE. If people put money in the stock market, they should know that it is NOT SAFE at all. If people put money in their house, they should know that the price will go up and down. Even after knowing this, why do people still play?!? Because they find the benefits outweigh the loss. Who's fault is this? ...
I keep 95% of my money as cash. Meaning, money under the bed, not at a bank.
You could argue that Bush's legacy is already pretty well negatively impacted that a few questionable pardons won't matter much but i suspect he'd see it differently.
The big problem for Ebbers is he became a poster child for that era. That's very tough to shake.
I bougt 100 sh of WCOM I just learn that I could take this loss on my income tax returns.
I neet to know the year that the shares of WORLDCOM became worthless.If you know
please advise.
Thank you.Sincerely
George.
From the Metricom employees who were fooled into thinking WorldCom had strategic interest at heart, GO TO HELL. Rot in jail, buddy.
- by JMD1234 December 28, 2008 2:04 AM PST
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