Ebbers found guilty

From the Boston Herald:

Ebbers, 63, who built a small Mississippi long-distance phone company into a global telecommunications giant, was convicted on all nine counts of fraud, conspiracy and filing false statements with regulators as part of an $11 billion accounting scheme that wiped out nearly $100 billion in shareholder stock value.

Ebbers, whose company ultimately plunged into bankruptcy and is now known as MCI Inc., faces life in prison, with sentencing set for June 13.

"This proves no one is above the law," said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School, adding Ebbers' legal strategy of pleading ignorance to the WorldCom accounting shenanigans was a "stupid defense."

I'm personally glad that the jury rejected the argument that he was completely ignorant of what went on at his company. Life in prison is, of course, kind of steep, but he does have to do hard time.

Let's also remember that the WorldCom collapse happened a few months after Enron. Let's also remember that Lay's trial isn't even scheduled to start until January. According to CBS, he's going to use the same defense.