Ebbers charged over WorldCom

FORMER WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers has been charged with fraud relating to the £6bn accounting scandal that caused the telecoms firm to collapse in the largest-ever US bankruptcy.

The indictment follows a guilty plea by former WorldCom finance director Scott Sullivan, who admits to conspiring to falsify the firm's accounts.

The US government says WorldCom's earnings were doctored because of Ebbers' insistence that profits met market expectations. Sullivan is expected to be a witness in the government's case against Ebbers.

Ebbers, who used to begin corporate meetings with a prayer, resigned from World-Com in April 2002 when the financial problems emerged.

The executive, who built up WorldCom with an acquisitions spree in the 1990s, has always denied any involvement in inflating profits.

WorldCom, which filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2002, is now called MCI.