Former WorldCom Exec Gets Prison

Ex-Controller Sentenced To A Year And A Day Behind Bars

(AP) 
The sentence for Myers was the same as that given Tuesday to Buford “Buddy” Yates, the company's former director of general accounting.

The punishment for Myers leaves only Sullivan, the No. 2 executive snared in the fraud, to be sentenced. Jones said Wednesday she believed Myers deserved far less blame for the fraud than Sullivan.

Sullivan has already agreed to relinquish his $11 million mansion in Boca Raton, Fla., to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors who lost billions of dollars in the WorldCom debacle.

Ebbers reached a similar settlement under which he forfeited his Mississippi mansion and turned over nearly all his assets to be sold, totaling up to $40 million.

Myers also reached a settlement with the investors, but it included no payment because lawyers in the case determined he could not afford to pay. Jones also did not impose a fine as part of the criminal sentence.

At Ebbers' trial, Myers testified the CEO apologized to him in 2000 after company accountants were forced to cover up more than $800 million in expenses. He said Ebbers promised him “that we would never have to do that again.”

Myers also recalled Ebbers' fretting in 2001, as WorldCom stock was sliding, that all he had worked for “will basically be wiped out.”

WorldCom, once one of the nation's leading telecommunications firms, went bankrupt when the fraud was discovered in 2002. It emerged last year under the name MCI.