The collapse of Worldcom cost several thousand jobs here in Colorado Springs alone. Fraud was definitely part of the reason, but there were other factors as well. For example, several hundred of those local employees were in the telemarketing department. Once the "no call" lists were enacted, the prospects for telemarketing jobs became pretty slim. There were other things, too, such as overbuilding the network capacity (along with many others) during the late 1990s only to see demand fail to meet expectations in part because of the dot-bomb disaster.

That $180 billion was due to the collapse of the price of Worldcom stock. Shares that might have been worth about $40 at one time became essentially worthless. There is no stash of money that comes from that, just "paper losses" (including a little of my own). Now, there may be real stashes of money due to stealing from the company. That would be fair game but probably very difficult to recover.

Shed no tears for Bernie - he'll be facing serious jail time if his appeals fail. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.