If you look below the fold in these articles about the Worldcom debacle, you’ll see an interesting detail. Who was Worldcom’s auditor? Right, Andersen. A month or so back they fired Andersen and brought in KPMG to scrutinize their books. And well, the rest is history.
Sorta like Worldcom.
Another interesting detail is that former CEO Bernard J. Ebbers who “abruptly resigned in April” according to the New York Times still owes WorldCom about $366 million which the company loaned him on sweetheartish terms back in the good old days.
This sort of thing is apparently quite common. In fact, TPM has uncovered a similar instance in another publicly traded company. This company is much smaller. But it’s one that’s been the toast of political Washington in recent years. We’ll be reporting our findings later this week.