More Woes For WorldCom

A published report says WorldCom may once again need to restate its financial results.

The Wall Street Journal says the company is preparing a revision that could add another $2 billion to the $7 billion dollars in accounting problems the company already has identified.

The paper says the troubled telecom company is expected to present its new findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission tomorrow.

It would be the second time WorldCom has added large amounts to its earnings revision.

And the Journal says the restatement raises questions about whether WorldCom will be able to emerge from bankruptcy protection intact.

WorldCom, which owns the nation's No. 2 long-distance telephone company MCI, became the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history on July 21.

Two weeks ago, the former top finance executive at WorldCom Inc. pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated the largest corporate accounting scandal in U.S. history by allegedly masking billions of dollars in expenses at the telecommunications giant.

Former WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan, 40, entered his not guilty plea in Manhattan federal court to charges that he was behind the alleged scheme aimed at artificially inflating WorldCom's earnings by hiding expenses. The indictment alleges that the scheme allowed Worldcom to report earnings inflated by some $5 billion.

WorldCom's former director of general accounting, Buford Yates, 46, also pleaded not guilty to his alleged role in the conspiracy.