JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - WorldCom Incorporated is spiraling toward bankruptcy. The long-distance giant has reported that it disguised nearly four billion dollars in expenses in what appears to be one of the largest cases of accounting fraud ever. <br>
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WorldCom has about four-thousand employees in Georgia -- most in Alpharetta in metro Atlanta. <br>
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The company said in April it would cut 187 jobs in Georgia as part of its plans to cut 3,700 jobs nationwide. <br>
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The nation's Number Two long-distance carrier said yesterday that expenses in 2001 and the first quarter of 2002 were wrongly listed on company books as capital expenses. That means they were not refleced in its earnings results. <br>
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That means the company may have lost millions of dollars when it reported profits. The company is based in Clinton, Mississippi. <br>
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The accounting firm that audited WorldCom's financial statements during 2001 and the first quarter of 2002 was Arthur Andersen. The firm was convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents as Enron tumbled.
