1.

What are the pressures that lead executives and managers to cook the
books?
There are several situations that lead the executives and managers cook the books.
Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom, and HealthSouth - the list
continues to grow. While Enron is perhaps the most complicated fraud in the
recent string of business failures, WorldCom was the most simple to perpetrate.
WorldCom is a for profit organization that specialized in local, long distance and
international plans, high cable internet, prepaid cards, and provided
telecommunications to customers nationwide with business corporations making
up the majority of the 20 million customers they served. Fraud is becoming
increasingly prevalent and also public. Two of the largest corporate frauds inputs.
history, Enron and WorldCom, occurred in this decade, inspiring increased
attention from both the financial press and government regulators. If
overconfidence is the reason, does that mean systematically biased decision makers
dominate the executive ranks? A lot of executives exhibit the characteristic of
overconfidence in which their expectations are higher than what might be
suggested, Overconfidence is a human characteristic that exists in the general
population for certain types of people, and it is more prevalent in executives. It is
pointed out that research in psychology, along with entrepreneurial and
management studies, shows that people who get promoted to the top levels of a
corporation are typically those with enough confidence to take chances. In
addition, executives are in top positions because of past successes, and these
experiences can cause them to be overly confident. Just because overconfidence
might lead to bad decisions in particular circumstances, it should not be the only,
or even primary, consideration when evaluating executives, adding that growing
body of literature indicates that confident and optimistic leaders might make what
would be viewed as bad decisions in certain circumstances, but overall, they also
have assets that any firm needs to succeed. "Given that the firm has to hire the
whole person, you might actually want somebody who exhibits this bias. But, you
should recognize that the overconfidence, which has its positive aspects, can also
have a downside.

2.What is the boundary between earnings smoothing or earnings management

and fraudulent reporting?
Earnings Management may be defined as reasonable and legal management
decision making and reporting intended to achieve stable and predictable financial
results. Earnings Management
is not to be confused with illegal activities to manipulate financial statements and
report results that do not reflect economic reality. These types of activities,
popularly known as cooking the books or fraudulent earnings, involve
misrepresenting financial results.
Both involve the intent, by reporting management, to distort their company's
earnings picture, but fraudulent accounting does so by violating generally accepted
accounting standards (GAAP)while earnings management does so within GAAP.
Many executives face a lot of pressure to cross the line from earnings management
to fraudulent earning. Some researchers believe it is a legal act and totally different
from fraud because it is within the boundaries of GAAP, while others see a very
tiny line between earnings management and fraud, and view it as an unethical act
that needs to be fought by external auditors. The debate on earnings management
and fraud will continue unless there is a proper way to help auditors identify the
difference between them.
3. Why were the actions taken by WorldCom Managers not detected earlier?
WorldComs company structure and corporate culture were the roots that
prevented the fraud by
the WorldCom managers from being detected earlier. There existed no written
policies or code of conduct and each department had it own management style. A
culture was created that made legal function less influential and less welcome.
There existed distant relations between the WorldComs external auditor and the
board of
directors. Employees did not have an independent outlet for expressing concerns.
The internal audit team was also rendered useless and several employees did not
even know of its existence
he company encouraged a corporate culture that employees should not question
their superiors, but simply do what they were told. The employees had incentives
to follow top
managements demand or were crumbled by threats that were commonplace to
employees who
did not obey orders. As we see in the case of Betty Vinson who had flawed under
pressure from her bosses. Another major cause was WorldComs departments were

spread out across the country, which made it difficult for the different departments
to fully coordinate and realize what was occurring in other departments.

4. What processes or systems should be in place to prevent or detect quickly

the types of actions that occurred in WorldCom?
Several systems should have been in place to both prevent and detect the types of
actions that occurred in WorldCom. Firstly, WorldCom should not focus on just
one performance indicator, the E/R ratio. Just focusing on one indicator gives
managers incentive to do whatever they can to reach the target ratio. By having
several performance indicators, managers would have a harder time using
fraudulent practices to maintain all indicators, and the multiple indicators would
give a
better, overall view of the companys health.
Secondly, the external audit system should work correctly to ensure that no
fraudulent practices occur. Several times a year the external auditor should audit
the old fashioned way by testing thousands of random individual transactions,
giving the auditor a better chance of catching fraud, instead of just testing the same
summaries each quarter. The external auditor should also not permit clients like
WorldCom to deny turning over important financial information or deny meetings
or phone conversations; if a client continues to deny financial information or
meetings, the external auditor should report the company to the SEC for closer
investigation. Lastly, the board of directors should more directly interact with the
company to oversee all operations and make sure everything is running smoothly
and legally. The board should personally check out the accountant department
financial statements at random to see the true financial situation, instead of just
accepting financial packets created by the CEO. The Board of Directors should
also be in closer contact with different managers and lower level staff members to
get a better picture of true operations, not the picture painted by the CEO.

5. Were the external auditors and board of directors blameworthy in this

case? Why or why not?
Yes, the external auditors and board of directors were blameworthy in this case of
accounting fraud at WorldCom. Mr. Ebbers, CEO of WorldCom always tried to
maintain a distance from the lawyers and ethical and legal procedures. Apart from
his job as CEO of WorldCom, he was also owner of several other businesses and

he drew financial help from WorldCom for those businesses without providing any
significant collateral option by using his position in WorldCom. CEO and CFO
were trying to show consistent revenue growth at WorldCom by manipulating
accounts. Manipulating tactics included mainly two actions releasing accruals and
capitalization of line costs. CFO Mr. Sullivan forced other employees to change
the account entries to meet the illogical forecasts of CEO. Board of directors and
external auditors never had access to the correct information of WorldCom
accounts. It was a tough time for telecom industry and there were enough doubt
raising facts and figures but Board of directors and external auditors of WorldCom
ignored them. Their job was to raise question, which they didn't do. Not
interruption or scrutiny by them made them blameworthy.
6. Betty Vinson Victim or villain? Should criminal fraud charges have been
brought against her? How should employees react when ordered by their
employer to do something they do not believe in or feel uncomfortable doing?
Betty Vinson had pleaded guilty to the court and was indeed cooking the books at
the behest of her employers. However, it would be unfair to take an extreme
position and label her a villain, as she was put in a difficult position, although she
was definitely not without blemish. She had complete knowledge of the wrongness
of what she was doing right from the beginning when she was asked to do it for the
first time. What mitigated her concerns must be the assurances from her employer
that she was not doing anything illegal and that he took full responsibility.
Although she had planned to resign she never did, in fact, she continued to cook
the books, to keep the job holding the knowledge that it was illegal. Perhaps, the
handsome salary and the position of Director provided further incentive. Although
ethically incorrect, the criminal charge of conspiracy was not deserved as she was
not apart of the conspiracy but was following orders and was under much pressure.
However the eventual punishment that she received was not a very harsh one and
at par with her fault as she should have refused to do what she did the very first
time. Whenever an employee is in a position, where his principles are in conflict
with his work at the job, he should do what he believes in and not something
that causes internal conflict. He should refuse the order and quit the job if need be.
If quitting job is difficult due to lack of another opportunity, he/she should perhaps
turn into a whistleblower.