Verified Document

Cooper/Worldcom In 2001, Worldcom Was A Company Term Paper

Cooper/WorldCom In 2001, WorldCom was a company at the top of its game. Although 2001 was difficult for them, it was difficult for all telephone companies. The number of local phone companies had dropped from 330 to 150 in 2000. They lost market share and encountered significant competition to their internet services. However, it still had more than $30 billion in annual revenues, and even after extensive layoffs, had over 60,000 employees (Warder, 2004), including Cynthia Cooper, Vice President of Internal Audit. They had over 20 million residential accounts, and business accounts well into five figures (Warder, 2004). They provided internet services to over 100 countries (Warder, 2004).

In spite of industry turmoil, Worldcom was optimistic about its long-term prospects, and CEO Bernie Ebbers continued to make acquisitions for the company, leveraging them with company stock. These efforts put strains on customer support, which appeared to be a major reason for the company's success (Warder, 2004). Gradually, expenses ate further and further into revenues, which should have been reflected in quarterly reports. This would have resulted in a drop in stock value. Complicating things, Worldcom had positioned itself in the stock market as a high growth company, putting further pressures on the company's leaders to prevent any drop in stock prices or returns (Warder, 2004). The Internal Audit department was expected to help demonstrate these goals in the company's financial records (Warder, 2004).

The company's leadership style was autocratic, with employee loyalty a trait that was rewarded even beyond established company policy for both salaries and bonuses (Warder, 2004). It appears that perks for loyalty were given to the Board as well as key employees (Warder, 2004). They used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to streamline costs and keep profits up (Warder, 2004). This put a significant strain...

Gradually, Cooper's department was pressured to use more and more questionable accounting practices to maintain WorldCom's image in financial reports and to demonstrate double-digit growth that did not actually exist (Warder, 2004). They got away with this for a while at least in part because an outside auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, went along with the scheme (Warder, 2004).
In an interview, Cooper commented, "The tone set at the top of an organization can permeate the corporate culture, and it's the actions of the company's executives that establish that climate" (Barrier, 2003). She noted that an inherent conflict of interest exists between an internal auditing department and the company in which it exists, and that it is up to the top executives to establish an atmosphere where honesty is encouraged and unethical behavior viewed as unacceptable.

Ironically, Cooper's original intent was to demonstrate that her department could help them control their bottom line, not become a whistle-blower (Lacayo & Ripley, 2002). When she called a meeting to explain this to the executives, Ebbers was at first resistant, and entered the room half an our late, smoking a cigar, and demanding to know "what the hell" the purpose of the meeting was. Cooper had a well-organized agenda planned, and her first slide demonstrated that she understood the need for the company to keep its profits up. She then demonstrated how her department could contribute to that effort, and won him over (Lacayo & Ripley, 2002).

Cooper became aware that someone was cooking the books almost by accident. A manager in another division noticed in March of 2002 that monies in his division had been moved to boost the company's income. Cooper went to the accounting agency Arthur Anderson, and was told to ignore it. When…

Sources used in this document:
Barrier, Michael. 2003. "One Right Path (Interview)." Internal Auditor, Dec.

Lacayo, Richard, and Ripley, Amanda. 2002. "Persons of the Year 2002: Q& A With the Whistle-Blowers." TIME, Dec. 22.

Warder, Zachary T. 2004. "Behind closed doors at WorldCom: 2001." Issues in Accounting Education, Feb.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Worldcom-Mci Case Analysis - Worldcom-Mci
Words: 2813 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Proposal

The first three organizations in line to recuperate their funds were Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and General Electric Group. They had been offering financial solutions and encouragement to purchase the WorldCom stock based on a favorable business relationship. However, at the time when bankruptcy procedures were commenced, the three organizations recognized their losses and intended to recuperate them. A succinct presentation of the period surrounding the crisis could be reveled by

Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2001
Words: 7885 Length: 29 Document Type: Term Paper

Sarbanes-Oxley. The political pressure of the past several years following the dot.com bubble and the collapse of several major companies created a need for new securities legislation, which culminated last year in the Sarbanes-Oxley Investor Protection Act, which establishes new guidelines for the securities industry. Initially a Democratic brainchild, the act became favored by Republicans in the House when it was realized that such adjustments would be of great benefit to

Waste, Abuse, Fraud and Corruption
Words: 2980 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

" While there are factors like peer pressure and authority that come into play, some research claims to have isolated significant features of an individual's character that make them more likely to commit acts of fraud, bribery and falsification in the corporate context (27, 2009). For example, those people with "high levels of ambition were more likely to transgress moral codes, competitively stab colleagues in the back and make dubious

Finance Changes in Financial Reporting
Words: 1731 Length: 6 Document Type: Thesis

Bush, who declared that corporations which jeopardized the investments and jobs of millions of individuals should pay their dues. The United States Senate and the House of Representatives also became involved and proposed numerous modifications. The pillar of the changes occurred in financial reporting after the accounting scandals is based on increased transparency and more support in conducting audit operations. The XBRL system for instance will allow the Securities and

Benchmark Regarding Bank Manager Careers
Words: 21790 Length: 75 Document Type: Term Paper

Steps were also taken to organize a stock market in Lahore (Burki, 1999, pp.127-128). Also organized during this period were the Pakistan Industrial and Credit Investment Corporation (PICIC) and the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (IDBP), both of which were important to industrial development, obtaining "large amounts of capital from the World Bank, the former for investment in large industries, the latter in relatively smaller enterprises" (Burki, 1999, p. 128). This

Riordan Manufacturing Virtual Organization "Riordan Manufacturing...
Words: 2286 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Riordan Manufacturing Virtual Organization "Riordan Manufacturing is a global plastics manufacturer employing 550 people with estimated $46 Million in sales per year" ("Financial Forecasting Paper Riordan Manufacturing," Docshare: Social Document Sharing, 2011). Riordan Manufacturing Virtual Organizations is an authentic company; namely, an international plastics manufacturing company. Riordan Manufacturing Virtual organization web-based businesses, schools, healthcare, and government organizations that promote authentic assessment by immersing students into problem-based learning environments. All Riodan Manufacturing Virtual

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now