Cynthia Cooper's Role In Worldcom Accounting Scandal

Assignment One – WorldCom, Inc. WorldCom was an American telecommunication business founded in 1989 which has bankrupted through accounting scandal in 2002. For a time, WorldCom was the United States’ second largest long distance telecommunications corporation after AT&T. The Long Distance Discount Service (LDDS) was created by Bernard Ebbers former baseball coach and manager of motels along with two friends in 1983. In 1992, LDDS bought Advanced Telecommunications to become the fourth largest long distance communication company in the US, and in 1994 the company bought IDB WorldCom, which gives its name to the group. In 1996, MFS communication. In October 1997, WorldCom acquired MCI Communications, and the transaction totaled 37 billion dollars

MCI was later acquired by its competitor Verizon in 2006. First, I want to discuss the Internal Auditors in WorldCom. Cynthia Cooper was one of them; she was the vice president of internal audit department at WorldCom. Cynthia Cooper’s role in WorldCom accounting scandal as the whistleblower was extraordinary. As an internal auditor, her job is to provide assurance that the company’s risk management, governance and internal control processes are operating effectively. In 2002, Cynthia Cooper discovered the false line cost entries on the balance sheet, so she reported to the CFO but was treated with unfair criticism. Cynthia was rather disturbed by the way their company tried to cover up the truth, so she formed a team with her colleagues, they worked together often at night and in secret to investigate and uncovered the 3.8 billion dollars in fraud at WorldCom. At that time, this was the largest accounting fraud in the U.S. history. Through the whole incident, Cynthia remained independent from the corporation, the staff, and the management. When she was investigating the evidence, she still maintained an unbiased, questioning mind and objective view under tremendous