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Four WorldCom Executives Subpoenaed for House Hearing (Update3)
Thursday, June 27, 2002
(15:12)
By Bob Gravely
Bloomberg

SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said Wednesday that the agency would try to stop WorldCom from making ``extraordinary'' payments, including severance payments and bonuses, to current or former WorldCom executives. The SEC asked a judge to appoint a monitor to ensure that WorldCom doesn't destroy documents, Pitt said.

Washington
The House Financial Services Committee will subpoena three current and former WorldCom Inc. officials and a Salomon Smith Barney analyst for a July 8 hearing on the company's disclosure that it hid $3.9 billion in expenses, the committee announced.

The subpoenas will be issued to former Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers, Chief Executive Officer John Sidgmore, former Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan, and Salomon Smith Barney telecommunications analyst Jack Grubman.

“The WorldCom news dramatically underscores the need for legislative and regulatory reform,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley. “Problems with accounting in telecommunications are, unfortunately, damaging a key growth sector of the economy that is already facing other, steep challenges,” the Ohio Republican said.

Congress has been considering legislation to tighten laws on accounting practices and to protect workers' pensions since the Dec. 2 bankruptcy filing by Enron Corp. Congressional committees in the House and Senate held televised hearings into Enron's collapse and stock sales by executives of ImClone Systems Inc.

* Bush `Concerned'
* Ebbers's Loans
(More: Bloomberg.com News Source)
2002 © Bloomberg L.P.

If any doco is destroyed, I’m sure it would be easy to show that the action was the result of individual criminals, not the company itself.

As for layoffs, tomorrows’ the day we learn who goes -- and who stays. According to the latest memo, the sights are focused on non-core departments. If this holds true, I’m extremely safe.

Dan