On the fifth day of deliberations, the jury sent several notes to the court, including one requesting copies of two documents that were not part of the trial record. When informed the documents did not exist, the jury clarified its request and was given a document relating to WorldCom’s revenue results in early 2002.
If found guilty, Ebbers could spend the rest of his life in jail. Indeed, he faces a possible 85 years in prison if convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and filing false documents with securities regulators.
Ebbers surrendered to the FBI in New York on March 3 last year, soon after being indicted by the US Department of Justice on charges related to the collapse of WorldCom in 2002. According to the DoJ, Ebbers presided over an effort to conceal from investors a decline in WorldCom’s operating and financial performance between September 2000 and June 2002.
Once accounting irregularities were disclosed, WorldCom (now known as MCI Inc) was pushed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The fraud amounted to more than $11bn. It was the largest bankruptcy in US corporate history, as the company was saddled with some $41bn in liabilities. WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy in April 2004 as MCI, with just $5.7bn in debt.
For the past six weeks, the jury has been hearing the evidence against 63-year-old Ebbers. However, the defense has been arguing that Ebbers used guile and bravado to build a tiny reseller of long-distance phone services into a global telecommunications giant. But they say he restricted his duties to motivating his sales force and cutting costs, and not cooking the books.
The defense pointed the finger at the former WorldCom CFO, Scott Sullivan. Sullivan has already pleaded guilty to his part in the fraud but in an effort to reduce to his sentence testified that Ebbers was behind the book-fiddling.
The jury in Manhattan federal court entered its sixth day of deliberations on Friday.
