WorldCom and the collapse of ethics: A case study in accounting fraud and corporate governance failure

Tina A, Aror and Naphtali, Mupa Munashe (2025) WorldCom and the collapse of ethics: A case study in accounting fraud and corporate governance failure. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 26 (2). pp. 3773-3785. ISSN 2581-9615

WorldCom fraud case is a good example of corporate malfeasance and delinquency of governance and controls. WorldCom was one of the world's largest telecommunication companies facing the biggest scandal of earning manipulation, where it was alleged to have inflated its earnings by more than $11 billion. The top management, Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive officer, and Scott Sullivan, the chief financial officer, conducted this fraud through manipulations such as identifying operating expenses as capital expenditure and fiddling with bad debt provisions. This fraud was first masked through financial scheming that deceived investors, regulators, and auditors. The scandal's essence here was lax corporate governance, which was based on business management goals oriented and driven solely by the excessive growth of corporate profits and stock price without regard to the legal concerns and the shareholders' interest. The acquisition policy that the Company adopted, together with the high tendency to meet financial goals that could easily be described as unsavory, made it easy for executives and employees of the Company to indulge in unethical financial practices (Eliel et al., 2025). They contributed significantly to such fraud, which took place unnoticed for years. This includes the Board of directors and the external auditors. The other party that became a subject of discussion was the auditors, namely Arthur Andersen, who lacked skepticism in handling their duty and could not detect fraud in the accounting department. The impact of the WorldCom scandal also manifested itself in organizational repercussions, which made WorldCom bankrupt, as well as the changes at the legislative level that occurred after the scandal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. They should not forget internal controls, ethical approaches, and professional standards in fighting and preventing fraud in financial organizations. It also raises the issue of outdated audit practices and the absence of adequate measures for organizations that can help prevent embezzlement before losses accumulate. The features associated with the WorldCom case clearly illustrate that corporate fraud is a reality in business and that ethics plays a critical function in any business.