DESK 2 — FILE OPEN
FOLDER W-0721CASE #2002-0721SHELF 4 / ROW C
BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL DEATHS
DIVISION OF COLD CASES / FORM 41-D / DEATH OF A GOING CONCERN
CASE NUMBER
CASE #2002-0721
SUBJECT
WORLDCOM, INC.
DATE OPENED
1983 — Hattiesburg, Mississippi
DATE CLOSED
July 21, 2002
KNOWN ALIASES
WCOM (NASDAQ); formerly LDDS; later MCI, Inc.
INVESTIGATOR
Det. Redact
CAUSE OF DEATH
Ordinary operating costs were entered as capital, and thereby ceased to be costs.
PEAK VALUATION
$180,000,000,000 (June 1999)
ASSETS RECOVERED
Reorganized as MCI, then sold to Verizon in 2006 for $8,500,000,000. Original shareholders received nothing.
EVIDENCE SUMMARY
Subject reclassified $3,800,000,000 of routine network expenses as capital investment. On examination the total was found to exceed $11,000,000,000.
The entries were discovered by subject’s own internal auditor, working nights. The external auditor of record had signed the accounts without objection.
That external auditor was Arthur Andersen, already convicted of a related cause. See CASE #2002-0831.
Remainder of statement sealed:
FILED BY Det. Redact · BADGE 0001NO FURTHER ACTION AUTHORIZED
PROPERTY OF THE BUREAUDO NOT REMOVE FROM ROOM 0114
MARGIN NOTE — INVESTIGATING OFFICER
Same auditor as the Houston file. I laid the two folders side by side; the signatures match. I have stopped filing these as separate deaths in my own head.
Found by one of their own. Working nights.
EXHIBIT A — recovered at the scene.
EVIDENCE TAG
ITEM W-0721
SUBJECT WORLDCOM, INC.
RECEIVED 2002
CONDITION AS FOUND
SUBJECT WORLDCOM, INC.
RECEIVED 2002
CONDITION AS FOUND