Ebbers sentenced to 25 years in prison

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Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
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NEW YORK - Weeping in court as he learned his fate, former WorldCom boss Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday for leading the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history.

It was the toughest sentence imposed on an executive since the fall of Enron in 2001 touched off a record-breaking wave of business scandals.

Even with possible time off for good behavior, Ebbers, 63 and with what his lawyers describe as serious heart problems, would remain locked up until 2027, when he would be 85.
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BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
126
What's even better than the sentence is pretty much ALL of his assets will be taken from him.
 
M

Medicine Bear

Banned
Feb 28, 2005
1,818
1
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Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
What's even better than the sentence is pretty much ALL of his assets will be taken from him.
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Oops. First time I read that I thought it said "ALL of his asshats will be taken from him"

 
R

Rastus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
4,704
3
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Worldcom refugee here. Got laid off after 7 1/2 years of pure hell. Ebbers going to prison is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time.
 
BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
126
Originally posted by: Medicine Bear
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
What's even better than the sentence is pretty much ALL of his assets will be taken from him.
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Oops. First time I read that I thought it said "ALL of his asshats will be taken from him"
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LOL...I did the same thing in the Eli for Elite thread a few days ago. I guess because we all see "asshats" much more than "assets"?
 
BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
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Originally posted by: Rastus
Worldcom refugee here. Got laid off after 7 1/2 years of pure hell. Ebbers going to prison is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time.
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Care to elaborate? What made it so bad?
 
BurnItDwn

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,354
1,863
126
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
NEW YORK - Weeping in court as he learned his fate, former WorldCom boss Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday for leading the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history.

It was the toughest sentence imposed on an executive since the fall of Enron in 2001 touched off a record-breaking wave of business scandals.

Even with possible time off for good behavior, Ebbers, 63 and with what his lawyers describe as serious heart problems, would remain locked up until 2027, when he would be 85.
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link
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I got nothin against the Rich, but scammers deserve a painfull death. I hope this guy rots.
 
R

Rastus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
4,704
3
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Even during the telecom boom, Worldcom was constantly laying people off and piling work on the people that were left. When I hired on, there were 8 people in my POP. A year an a half later, I was there alone. I was ALWAYS on call. They kept pushing stock options, so raises were few and far between. Perks were always being taken away. Their wall street shills were always calling us to get us to margin our 401k's, which ended in most people losing their life savings. Then it ended in layoffs. The people that are left are still sufferig.

MCI spent their money building hosting facilities that are still unused and the infrastructure is aging and is very hard to maintain, so a big outage is imminent on their network.

Now with the bidding war between Qwest (who is in just as much trouble) and Verizon has driven up the price of the company beyond what it is worth, so the investors are about to take another bath.

Cliff Notes: MCI sucks
 
S

state 08

Platinum Member
Jun 6, 2005
2,009
0
0
Originally posted by: Sheepathon
Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
Originally posted by: state 08
What did he do?
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Maybe the better question is where have you been?
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Probably 10th grade. Be nice :)
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Ha - ha - ha.

Freshman in college. Just a lil' ignorant about world happenings... sometimes.

So yeah, what did he do?
 
BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,944
475
126
WorldCom and the telecommunications industry are classic cases of how dysfunctional things have become.

During the 1980s deregulation craze, after the breakup of AT&T, WorldCom was among the companies that dived whole hog into the telecommunications game.

Its CEOs employed all the standard tricks to become king of the hill. They frantically produced and procured fiber-optic network capacity. They indebted themselves acquiring another company, MCI, for $37 billion. They launched self-destructive price wars with their competitors. Citigroup, JP Morgan, and other banking/investment firms acted as pushers, urging WorldCom to borrow billions of dollars to gobble up rivals. And Wall Street analysts connected to the same firms lauded the company?s stock when they knew it was a dog.

The results are now history. WorldCom drowned in an ocean of debt, the casualty of a glutted communications industry, overzealous investments, and uncontrolled production. Other telecom giants, from Telekom AG to Qwest, capsized for the same reasons. Meanwhile, fiber-optic networks have operated at as low as just 2.5 percent of available capacity.

In school, professors of free-market economics tell us this chaos is the "logic" of supply and demand and that it produces the survival of the fittest among bold, risk-taking entrepreneurs.

In real life, WorldCom?s would-be risk-takers are well connected to the political establishment and protected by laws that socialize the costs of their bad decisions. CEO Bernard Ebbers bailed out with $400 million in loans and a $1.5 million annual severance payment for life.

Other telecommunications companies that are owed millions of dollars by WorldCom, meanwhile, have asked the Federal Communications Commission to let them pass on the cost of the uncollected bills to their customers.

And, under Chapter 11 laws, the banks that loaned WorldCom billions will be first served in bankruptcy court.

So who will pay for WorldCom?s downfall? Consumers, in higher bills and shoddier service; 17,000 pink-slipped employees; and untold numbers of workingclass stockholders whose investments disappeared almost overnight.
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All through out his trial, Ebbers stated he knew NOTHING of what was going on behind the scenes.
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
I hate to pee on everyones parade, but the guy isnt going to jail until October.

Now seriously, I'm sure the guy has offshore accounts somewhere.
If you were a billionare white boy, would you spend 25 years in prison with big black bubba?
Or would you find a country with no extradition treaty?
;)
 
I

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
7,608
0
0
Originally posted by: shortylickens
I hate to pee on everyones parade, but the guy isnt going to jail until October.

Now seriously, I'm sure the guy has offshore accounts somewhere.
If you were a billionare white boy, would you spend 25 years in prison with big black bubba?
Or would you find a country with no extradition treaty?
;)
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I doubt he's going to a pound-me-in-the-ass prison... probably more of a fluffy Martha Stewart-type lockup situation, but still. He'll probably get out after 7 or 8 years w/good behavior, but he'll have all his assets seized (minus some for the wife and kids) and that's additional (well-deserved) punishment. What a horrible man for ruining so many lives.
 
S

SouthPaW1227

Golden Member
Aug 4, 2004
1,863
0
0
I hope he gets out...he was just living the American dream this country encourages.

If you think this guy should be in jail, most of you should look for new Senators, congresspeople, and representatives as well.

Corruption, as sad as it is, is the American way. We just hide it well.
 
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