The second part of our paper is discussing the case of the Worldcom, a US company that was leading by a fraud. The largest company provider of internet-based communication services and the second largest long-distance telephone company in the US, WorldCom became one of the most popular case studies for corporate ethics, financial frauds and senior management irresponsibility along with Enron.
This analyse contains four parts, which will start with the strategies and practice that exposed the Worldcom, the second part will be the accounting analysis of the company, the third part will be the financial analysis and the last part will the prospective analysis.
A. Strategies and Practices that Exposed WorldCom to Major Risks
Business strategy
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One of the example , is “many leases required WorldCom to make fixed monthly payments regardless of whether WorldCom or its customers actually used the leased lines” (Wilmarth, 2007, p.144). the Accounting misconducts was taken place in WorldCom included but was not limited to announce the higher revenues that the actual amount through drawing down accounting reserves that included reserves related t mergers (Hayes, 2011). Specifically, many violating GAAP standards, WorldCom accountants have used more USD 3.3 billion or more of the reserves to absorb the line costs in order to report a lot of earning during the period of 1999 – 2011.
Reporting expenses as capital expenditures is one of the main financial falsifications engaged by WorldCom head of finance. Specifically, WorldCom CFO Sullivan instructed network access costs of about USD 3.9 billion to be listed as capital expenditures, when in reality this amount needed to be reflected as expense (Davis et al., 2011). Moreover, the practice of illegal capitalisation of line cost conducted by WorldCom Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Scott Sullivan, reportedly because of the pressure by CEO Ebbers decreasing the volume of official expenses and increasing profits
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As our prospective Worldcom stockholder knew financial securities analysist who may posseses specialized . Many factors such as intensifying levels of competition in telecom, the internet and wireless communication industry in the end of 1990 combined with the failure just when they merger with Sprint, it caused gradual decline of WorldCom share prices, but their CEO has determinated to avoid al the decline at all costs that was leding him to initiate the manipulations with financial data that presented to organisational
On Friday, 09/23/2016, at approximately 0830 hours, I, Deputy Stacy Stark #1815 met with the reporting party, James R. Boucher (M/W, DOB: 07/25/1959) at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. I requested James R. Boucher to come to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office to review the Wal-Mart video footage I collected and identify the suspect, James Roy Boucher (M/W, DOB: 03/16/1978) on the video footage.
The first financial ratio of the analysis is the Price to Earnings ratio (“P/E ratio”). The ratio is computed by dividing the price of one share of common stock, by the earnings per share of common stock. This analysis uses diluted earnings per share which assumes the issuance of new stock for all existing stock options. Also, the price of the stock was computed as an average of the fourth quarter high and low stock prices published in the 10K report of each company, because the year end stock prices were not listed for all the companies. Because the P/E ratio measures the relative costliness of different stocks, in relation to their income, it provides a useful place to begin the analysis.
Enron corporation, a company establisted at 1985, in Taxes. Until 2001, it becames one of the biggest company in the world, which service for energy, natural gas and telecommunications. In 2000, the disclosure turnover reached $101 billion. Everything is going well for Enron corporation. However, at beginning of 2001, Jim - a good reputation of the short-term investment agency owner. Publicly on Enron’s profit model expressed doubts. He pointed out that alough Enron’s business looks very brilliant, but in fact they cannot really make the amount of moeny like the data shown before. No one can say they can understand how Enron is making moeny. According to the inverstment owner’s analysis, Enron’s profitability in 2000 to 5%, to the beginning
Ethics policies are implemented in almost all businesses. Companies search for candidates that will be moral in their actions so they can ensure long-term financial success. Throughout history we have seen businesses fall due to unethical behavior. In recent years the business Enron Corporation is best known for the scandal that led to the bankruptcy of a company with more than 60 billion dollars in assets. We will examine the circumstances that led to the downfall of Enron, how the scandal was realized, as well as the outcome of one of the largest bankruptcies in American history; a case that exemplifies unethical professional behavior.
Enron was the model for rapid growth in the 1990’s but part of the culture and ethics of Enron was disturbing. Falsified documents, cutthroat competitiveness among employees and accounting schemes that hid the truth of the company’s indebtedness were just a few examples of the lack of business ethics within the organization. Perhaps a more virtuous management team could have saved Enron from collapse.
In modern day business, there can be so many pressures that can cause managers to commit fraud, even though it often starts as just a little bit at first, but will spiral out of control with time. In the case of WorldCom, there were several pressures that led executives and managers to “cook the books.” Much of WorldCom’s initial growth and success was due to acquisitions. Over time, WorldCom discovered that there were no more opportunities for growth through acquisitions when the U.S. Department of Justice disallowed the acquisition of Sprint.
Many organizations have been destroyed or heavily damaged financially and took a hit in terms of reputation, for example, Enron. The word Ethics is derived from a Greek word called Ethos, meaning “The character or values particular to a specific person, people, culture or movement” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007, p. 295). Ethics has always played and will continue to play a huge role within the corporate world. Ethics is one of the important topics that are debated at lengths without reaching a conclusion, since there isn’t a right or wrong answer. It’s basically depends on how each individual perceives a particular situation. Over the past few years we have seen very poor unethical business practices by companies like Enron, which has affected many stakeholders. Poor unethical practices affect the society in many ways; employees lose their job, investors lose their money, and the country’s economy gets affected. This leads to people start losing confidence in the economy and the organizations that are being run by the so-called “educated” top executives that had one goal in their minds, personal gain. When Enron entered the scene in the mid-1980s, it was little more than a stodgy energy distribution system. Ten years later, it was a multi-billion dollar corporation, considered the poster child of the “new economy” for its willingness to use technology and the Internet in managing energy. Fifteen years later, the company is filing for bankruptcy on the heels of a massive financial collapse, likely the largest in corporate America’s history. As this paper is being written, the scope of Enron collapse is still being researched, poked and prodded. It will take years to determine what, exactly; the impact of the demise of this energy giant will be both on the industry and the
...ent expense the year it incurred. Due to the reporting error, in 2001 $3.055 billion was misclassified and 4791 million in the first quarter of 2002 (Law Maryland). In order to avoid getting caught, WorldCom was trying to be slick by leaving some line costs as current expense so that the error in classifying would not be easily detectible. This error in classifying expenses cause WorldCom to increase net income and assets. This fraud was found by the companies internal audit, Cynthia cooper, on May 2002. This detection was not good news to Arthur Anderson as they were the outside auditors of WorldCom. Anderson had already been affected by Enron scandal and neglecting to do to their job correctly. But with WorldCom they claimed that the chief financial officer Scott Sullivan did not tell them about the line costs being capitalized and they were unaware of this fact.
As the turn of the 21st Century evolved, it appeared as if Adelphia Communications Corporation was on a direct path of success; unbeknownst to their investors and the public, they were in reality on a direct path of destruction instead. Unfortunately, Adelphia is not the first major company in the history of the United States’ business world to lose the trust of the American public, but it is certainly one of the most notable ones to do so. As the events surrounding the Adelphia scandal unfolded in full view of the public eye, a multitude of media outlets were there to broadcast the destruction and distrust to the masses leaving many wondering if the term “business ethics” was actually nothing more than just an oxymoron. Throughout this paper, we will discuss the events surrounding the rise and fall of the Adelphia Communications Corporation and identify two of the ethical problems associated with the scandal while applying them to the deontological framework and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
WorldCom & Bernie Ebbers Case Study Keith Tewell University of the People The notorious saga surrounding WorldCom and the actions of its CEO, Bernie Ebbers, could be described as poor decision-making, greed, denial, deception or all of the above. In the final analysis, the driving factor behind the deviant behavior that lead the company to ruin was the business strategy of WorldCom's CEO, Bernie Ebbers (DiStafano, 2005). As CEO, Ebbers avoided internal company conflict at all costs, and he ultimately avoided the reality that WorldCom, once the dominant company in the telecommunications industry, was in serious economic trouble (Principles of Management, 2015).
Enron Corporation was based in Houston, Texas and participated in the wholesale exchange of American energy and commodities (ex. electricity and natural gas). Enron found itself in the middle of a very public accounting fraud scandal in the early 2000s. The corruption of Enron’s CFO and top executives bring to question their ethics and ethical culture of the company. Additionally, examining Enron ethics, their organization culture, will help to determine how their criminal acts could have been prevented.
All financial information and notes are used to asses a company’s health and predict what the coming year may hold. The information found on the financials contains a large amount of information and once one understands how to interpret it then one has a visual of the company’s health.
By 2001 the telecommunications market was softening; meaning prices were falling due to an excess of supply and a decrease in demand as the dot com boom ended. WorldCom had already signed contracts with third party telecommunication companies promising to complete their calls. These multi billion dollar contracts were actually costing more in expenses than what the company would or was receiving in revenue (Sandberg, Solomon, & Blumenstein, 2002).
When an ethical dilemma arises within an organization, it is difficult to separate right and wrong with what is best for the majority. Sometimes the answer is not a simple “yes” or “no.” In 2002, Enron Corporation shows us just that. By 2002, the sixth-largest corporation in America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The case of the Enron scandal is one of the best examples of corporate greed and fraud in America.
The Tyco accounting scandal is an ideal illustration of how individuals who hold key positions in an organization are able to manipulate accounting practices and financial reports for personal gain. The few key individuals involved in the Tyco Scandal (CEO Kozlowski and CFO Swartz), used a number of clever and unique tactics in order to accomplish what they did; including spring loading, manipulating their ‘key-employee loan’ program, and multiple ‘hush money’ payouts.