Corporate America hit by biggest scandal in history.

Financial News, June, 2002

Corporate America suffered its biggest scandal to date Tuesday night when it was claimed that WorldCom, a telecommunications company founded by a devout Mississippi Christian, had lied about making about $3.85bn ([euro]3.89bn) of profits over 15 months.The size of the alleged profits overstatement at WorldCom is more than double the previous record, set by the pharmacy chain Rite Aid, and makes the accounting irregularities at Enron Corporation look like a rounding error.

WorldCom, already crippled by nearly $30bn of debt, is now expected to go bust. WorldCom's auditing firm during the period of the accounting problems was Andersen, which was also Enron's auditor.