When Greed Goes Too Far – The Worldcom Fraud – Blog

Nishit Patira
“Because everyone expects the person above them is doing the right thing”. This is a real concern even today. In my own company, a lot of people are heard saying, “just do what is being told” or “they are at XYZ Senior position, so they know better than we do”. While I agree that they are at a senior role for a reason, blind following is never good.
NimRook
I absolutely love these videos. They are well researched, edited and bring a superb understanding to these events
Adam Dittrich
Love these fraud series. Please keep them coming
Noble Polygon
I worked for MCI Worldcom at a call center when I was 18 in Alpharetta, GA. One day I came to work and the building was locked up. Being 18, I didn’t really give a sh*t and joined the Navy a few weeks later.
andrew zook
I love how every CEO can just straight lie to the faces of its share holders and investors when the ship starts going down.
Joshua Patrick
When a Fortune 500 CEO says “what I feel in my heart of hearts,” run for your fucking lives…
John Dupuy
Worldcom held UUNet; a massive core backbone (Tier1 ASN) of the Internet; nearly priceless in value but ignored at the time. AT&T, which was big in telecom, but which was a tiny Internet player back then, purchased that part during bankruptcy. They were propelled into the Internet in a way that they likely would never have pulled off themselves. The irony of the whole crash was that the underlying system was insanely valuable in the long run, but due to fraud and bad financial management it was crushed.
upstate922
Most billionaires are wealthy on paper but it takes real (actual) money to live a billionaire lifestyle. I would love to see a video on how billionaires actually fund this as their monthly outgoings must be huge. This is probably why many of them seem to do such strange things for what, on the surface, seems a relatively small amount of money.
Drum8888
“When Greed Goes Too Far” – This series could last for decades.
Denis Figlia
As a former WCOM Sr Mgr, I can attest to losing over 250,000 in their retirement plan. Hopefully, Ebbers is feeling nice and toasty in that special place reserved for him.
Kate Courtney
This makes me want to be an auditor when I grow up and pursue accounting. I wanna put all this filthy greedy management down who thrive at the expense of us ordinary working individuals.
Howard T_Duck
I love studying about WorldCom and I’ve been watching it for decades. One of my earliest job interviews was at a WorldCom call center and they called me back for a second round of interviews but friends and ex-employees said stay away because their goals were too far reaching, wow I had no idea to what magnitude that would lead to in future years!
Robert Chen
When a company needs to grow by endless acquisitions, it needs to be scrutinized more closely than others. CEOs of acquirers may simply satisfy their hubris or thirst for power. Splitting up or spinning off companies from a giant may actually show the social responsibility of the CEO by allowing opportunities for younger generations to manage spinoffs.
maxxe2
I swear dude your voice is so soothing it really makes me feel so calm
Ben Toth
My dad worked in their IT department when this all went down. I remember hearing about it in vague terms but nothing this concrete. Thanks for the info.
ImprovementGang
Dang, this is a hell of a case. This somehow reminded me of the history of the dot-com bubbles, and how my professor told me that people had doubts that in 2000 the computers would go crazy and not work. Thanks for posting!
Shawn
I binged these so much as I was writing my dissertation, now that I have finally submitted it I’m enjoying them even more. Keep them coming :)!
Ecwfan the Collector
I remember when this happened in early 2000’s. It amazed me at the power Ebbers had and how he was able to just push mergers and do whatever he wanted it seemed.
Mister Kim
Ebbers would cut free coffee for his workers, but then throw lavish birthday parties for his wife where he would gift her with a $6000 shower curtain, among other things. Ahh… good times. I remember the 90’s well.
Sass Hole
I have to admit, I admire Bernie Ebbers for cleaning the rooms at his own motels. He may have been doing it to pinch pennies, but at least he was doing the dirty work himself rather than underpaying someone else.
Thomas Kelly
1:02 That is an awesome diagram of AT&T breaking up into many companies then merging back into at&t (emphasis lowercase), or becoming Verizon and Quest. It would be quite a surprise if any of those companies are doing what Worldcom did. After seeing this video, perhaps I would be less surprised.
EazyKM
When I was watching this video, in the back of my head I was wondering, who the hell were the external auditors signing off the books of WorldCom during those years When I heard Arthur Andersen … I was like “Owwww …. makes sense now” lol.
Gorm Sundberg
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. We are rewarding the wrong behaviours and we need new systems in place. Thank you for another fantastic video!
swordoftree
As an accounting student, this was pretty eye-opening. Thank you.
Zakk Lade
Your videos are magnificent. I look forward to every one of them. The production is among the best I’ve ever watched. Keep up the hard work!
Just Me
Cynthia has cojones of steel!! I cannot imagine the ire she endured. Brave woman.
Pilcrow
Your documentaries on business scandals are some of my favourites! Please can you do a video on the failure of Powa Technologies sometime. I remember reading about this scandal unfolding a few years back, but I’ve never seen any documentaries about it…
Dave Adams
Huge money breeds huge greed. It’s the story of humanity and will never end – unfortunately 😔
Akshay Prabhakant
Hey Dagogo, could you do a video on HFT firms, David Lauer, Brad Katsuyama, and basically covering the foundation of IEX?? Thanks for all of your content , keep your videos coming.
crimmas
I lived across the interstate from what had been their HQ from 2007-2011, it was real weird whenever we went to Pizza Hut which was just outside the gates where all that Worldcom B-roll footage was filmed lol. That also killed off our hockey team. A friend’s dad was one of those laid off and he took all kinds of IT gear on his way out lol. They had blank discs for years
Phillip Bouie
This video hits close to home as I was employed by WorldCom during this period. My first corporate job, I started in early 1998, I thought I was on top of the world with a solid salary job, benefits, options, and with up and coming company. People were impressed when you said you worked at WorldCom, the company was the most popular brands at the time, on par with Apple and Amazon today. I remember having gotten home with a night out with the girlfriend and at 530 in the morning seeing the headline on CNN SEC investigating WorldCom for cooking the books. After see and hearing the report I called a friend and coworker and left a message “Did you hear the news yet about work, we are in so much trouble. This is going to end bad.” No truer words have been spoke yet. Ended up surviving the first round of layoffs, then they entered bankruptcy survived that round too. Then right before the company came out of bankruptcy the final round of layoffs got me. I should’ve jump ship when I first hear about issue but nope thought loyalty meant something. Nope to that too. Yeah those guys got jail time but it didn’t compare to the lives they destroyed without a thought. My belief in corporate America was totally shattered as was many people’s. And what did I learn – Work hard but be wary! Currently times are getting tough and it going to get rougher for America with hyper-inflation, unemployment, and foreign interference. We got to help each other and work together because in the end we are all we got when everyone and everybody comes after us. We either stand together and survive or stay divide and fall apart – And that means all that America has done, all the sacrifices we made, all the lives given to the dream will count for nothing.
MannyDelosh
I love this channel, I’ve binged these docs all day. Getting hooked on a topic I had no real interest in previously trully is the sign of a good creator.
DudeDuderino Duderino
Greed knows no boundaries and it affects all who are touched by its illusions.
Ajinkya Sawrikar
Hey Dagogo ! First off, I’ve been subscribed to your channel for 5+ years now and I absolutely love the scam/fraud series man. I think its really important that the public at large should be educated about this kind of stuff. Now coming to your question, I still think that there are plenty of potential Worldcoms out there despite the fact that right after the two huge scandals (Enron & Worldcom) were unearthed the US government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The thing is that public companies are obliged to deliver decent returns to their shareholders. A ton of analysts keep a track of their numbers and if they ever so slightly deviate from the street expectations, the price of the stock is bound to tumble and we know that majority of the wealth of the top executives is tied up in stock options. It is no wonder why they are willing to go to such extents to protect their interests.
Karlstens
Cracking stories, banger tunes, Dagogo is my fav. Cold Fusion and team, well done for such a great channel.
Peter Harrison
I love your videos Dagogo, you are simply the best at what you do. The homework you must do must take some seriously time consuming effort, but it all worth it for people like me and the rest of your subscribers. Ps You have the perfect voice to deliver the narration. Class
Wally993
When your CEO looks to cut costs and cuts coffee and or snacks from the lowest workers.. you truly know you are not there to help anybody but the few who sit at the top.
thecthonian
I was an employee of WorldCom from 1998 to 2006, then with Verizon until 2010. I witnessed everything that happened in this video. I’m sure Bernie is now a pile of ashes for what he did to our retirement accounts..lying bastard. I am thankful for my tenure there, as telecom is a lucrative career.
〉〉cerebral_malfunction
“When a measure becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good measure”
Sandeep Khattri
The professionalism of the content maintained makes me wonder why isn’t it a real TV channel? Simply the best Channel I would say.
ThePSaco
Keep these fraud documentaries coming man, they’re so good
Devin R. Santo
Interesting… I was a customer many years ago and as a customer, all I was concerned about was low prices. However, without enough revenue, even massive companies can collapse. Thanks for taking us inside this debacle.
Kathy Bowles
This is my history too. It seems so very long ago and thankfully, I still have wonderful memories of my time at MCI and my coworkers became “friends and family”. I won’t say Worldcom was the worst thing to happen in my life but it is up near the top.
The Traveler
One concern: how in the world would the financial institution so easily allow a high school basketball coach and a linen laundry man have access to such a complex venture. This is all a game.
Shel Burn
Stellar Content! Maybe make a corrupt CEO series? I have found most, if not all, your videos to be massively entertaining. Keep it up!
Joshua Sweetvale
11:00 Remember, when your boss tells you to commit fraud, – and you’ve clearified it would be fraud – you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to laugh in their face and quit. You can’t pay your mortgage from jail with leans on your everything.
David Harned
One of the most professional creators on YouTube. Every video is so well done
Philippe Defechereux
Thank you for this very edifying and well-done summary of a scandal I only vaguely remembered. Why vaguely? Because it’s only gotten worse in new dimensions, such as “crypto-currencies”and ransom hackers.Plus the “no hols barred Trump era. Keep exposing moe fraud and big lies!.Our democracy is at risk.
James Broadbent
Easily the best videos/clips on YouTube. The obvious investigation and fact gathering is unparalleled in comparison to other channels. Thank you for your well investigated and thought out videos. Please keep the content coming.
Rich
“Are there any future Worldcoms out there?” I think it’s easier to ask “are there any big businesses that are actually playing it straight.” I suspect the answer would be “not many”.
dreburch
Crazy…. I worked for this company back when I was in college. Actually met this guy. He was a pretty intense person.
Jessica Kakern
That CFO really deserved more time than 5 years. He seemed really involved in the whole fraud and it messed up a lot of people’s lives.
Ian De Jesus
That is why you put an engineer as your CEO/President of a Tech Company. Look no further than how AMD is and their immense growth in the past 4 years.
Mike Nelson
Love your videos, Dagogo. They are so informative, easy to understand, and polished. Keep them coming, I get excited every time I see a new one is available. Cheers from Phoenix, Arizona, USA!
Jim N.
I absolutely believe the man with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans secured by his stock in his company would absolutely make an immediate and frank statement about any problems that might exist which could adversely effect that stock price. I mean, it’s weird people think we need to regulate these things.
David Hutchinson
It’s such a shame. MCI was a really great company. I got my first sales job there in 1986. We had so much fun. And believe me they knew how to pay people. We would get lunch catered in occasionally. But even in 86 and 87 we were making over $8.00 hourly. Bill McGowan, the founder of MCI was a true visionary.
Rendroc
Seems like this happens a similar way with all these big companies. Earnings start to drop, and management makes up numbers so investors don’t start liquidating. Earnings drop usually due to some kind of poor business decisions but even perhaps just due to a change in the market, successfull competitors, lack of innovation and ability to adapt.
zmonkey
It’s stories like these that make me very thankful I don’t have money of my own to invest. Worldcom would have likely been a stock I would have purchased back then.
E Cognitio
The 2020’s will have many Worldcom’s. We’re in the age of the grifter.
Alexander
These fraud/scandal videos are incredibly entertaining, keep it up!
Plamen Vasilev
Okay, so if the CEO of a company is named Bernie – DO NOT BUY THEIR STOCK. Noted.
William Ormsby
I still remember this one being my first short sell back in 2002 when it was trading around $6 a share. I ended up covering that position when it was trading for pennies a few weeks later. Crazy times.
The Truth Teller OJ is Guilty
I worked for Worldcom at the turn of the last century. We were so excited when we learned that we were getting Worldcom stock options. I thought I’d be able to retire by 35 years old. That didn’t quite work out.
Thermal cam lab
Love these series. Please keep them coming
Mr. H
Thank you for these videos. You’re fantastic at what you do!
Heliuminum
These videos make me wonder if there are similar companies/events happening right now, and we won’t find out until later when everything unfolds. Great video, as always
Ross Tray
Thanks Dagogo! Could you plan a piece on the Archegos meltdown?
Sky Broome
As a former MCIWorldcom employee, I can say that the company was a big mess internally. I was hired in 2001 and immediately felt the ‘tug of war’ with gathering business information between the former MCI side where I worked and the much smaller former Worldcom side. I would be tasked with gathering internal corporate billing information to simply be told “no, we’re not going to give you that” by the other group… to which I responded, “You understand that we work for the same company, right??” Between that and being given a timeline of multiple years to implement the simple changes in data presentation that I was hired to drive, I begged to be one of those laid off 18 months after I started. It was a real mess!
Brian martial
Cold fusion and Johnny Harris if they were put in one room I tell you, just pure golden content
Biig_Tree707
Genuinely watched 10 times now thank you dagogo you are a service to the world
Ghaydaa
I love your videos. They are so awesome and well researched and I learn a lot from them.
outsideredge
Love the video. I did a project about WorldCom in my 4th year business ethics class in university. Being in Canada their story interested me because Ebbers was Canadian.
Aravind V
If this guy was the tenth worst, I shudder imagining how much crap the first nine pulled off..
locklear308
I love how things like this show you how virtual money literally is worthless. Because as long as nobody actually knows the truth you could just keep going, but if somebody finds out the truth it collapses. Lol
CA Neeraj Singh
Yet another amazing video…. i m in audit profession and i can relate to each situation your presented so beautifully….. thank you Dagogo
livingood1049
Thank you for uploading this. To answer the question from my perspective, I would say that people in similar positions in the world today learned to keep their mouth shut…
Joseph Massaro
When I was in college I worked at a time share condo. I knew one of the residents who visited frequently. He was a retiree who told me about his Worldcom retirement investment. That year I moved away and shortly after the scandal hit. I always wondered how he did.
Joseph Ybarra
These are the types of videos that would make Netflix millions
if it pleases 🏳️‍🌈⃠
Me, poor: scared to mis-enter the cents on my tax return them, rich: adding zeros to all of their federal filings I think I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time.
Andrei C
The production value of a multi billion media corporation. Love these videos
shin1300
Last time I was this early Theranos was an advance medical company
XCurrent Breeze
I don’t know how I’ve never heard of a company this massive, even if it was before my time.
peter lewis
I love the financial industry secrecy laws , con artist heaven . And they make it sound like its `you` they protect ! Way to go humans . Imagine being able to find out where your grandmas 800 quid went on a phishing scam , imagine knowing your bosses bank balance when they say they cannot afford more than minimum wage , or finding out they really cannot .etc etc Imagine .
Ifthikar Sheriff
I was able to prevent a fraud from taking place at a company where I worked where the CEO was trying to manipulate the revenue figures for the year by getting large value invoices raised prior to year end but in reality these equipment and items invoiced were simply moved from one location within the stores that was outsourced to another location within the same stores where the location was “awaiting despatch”. These items remained in the stores for about six months without being taken out and this was when I realised the modus operandi. When it was highlighted, it became a big issue as the external auditors had mentioned the large transactions prior to year end in passing but did not do more. It became a bone of contention between the CEO and the Head of Controls to whom I was reporting where the CEO wanted this issue swept under the carpet. Ultimately, the CEO had to leave on this and other issues, and like Worldcom, was another company in the communications industry!!!
Lisa Lyons
As a former Worldcom employee, everything here falls in line with what I understood. I didn’t know Ebbers had died though!
Benjamin H.
Very detailed and knowledge-enhancing documentary. Thanks to the creator.
nihaad344
Scammer detection checklist: 1. Does the founder wear a turtle neck? 2. Is the founder’s first name ‘Bernie’
D
Absolutely love the fraud docu stuff, fascinating! Thank you.
bondi5000
I worked at WorldCom as a sales rep in Australia when all this blew up. They paid crazy commissions to their sales people – best sales job I ever had. 😂
nada
You deserve all the success my dude!
Siddhartha Neupane
I love your videos, man! I hope you’ve got the necessary licenses of the contents, tools you use while making these videos. Good luck!
Serrano117
I love watching your videos on these financial crimes they are so great
James L
Coldfusion dude you help keep me upto date with current news. Become a tech docu/news channel my man
Dogche
Coldfusion videos are like long journeys. After watching the video, you’ll feel as if you’ve travelled for a long time.
Steve Kranz
So very well done! I had many friends who lost their jobs due to his mismanagement.
Carla Moore
At the time that this investigation went down I was working for Sprint PCS when the merger didn’t go through they laid a lot of people off and I was one of them. This is what happens when a small company buys a big company and tries to run it like a small company, at least that’s how I interpret it. I got rehired by Sprint and then the company split and Sprint merged with Time Warner Cable and Sprint long distance became Embarq. A year into the new company here comes CenturyTel to buy Embarq it was the repeat of a little small southern company by the big company and then not invest in growing the company. They were given themselves fat ass raises while they were freezing our ability to get paid more money. I could see the writing on the wall and I got the hell out of there. A lot of really smart people lost their jobs when they finally closed down our network operation center they were trying to force people to relocate to Monroe Louisiana when that didn’t work they just started shutting down our NOC department’s. 😡
Peter Johnson
Thanks Dagogo once again for your brilliant work.
Ian Puddick
Excellent video, well made, great narration! Interesting content well delivered
Bisi
You can’t even imagine how much I’ve missed you.
Æther Entropy
Wish we had more people like you Dagogo, intelligent and can always see through the BS.
SPRPhilly
For a split second I was like “holy crap! they got Elizabeth Holmes to investigate!”
Ian Calandro
I love stories of corporate fraud like this, but what I always found Bizarre was that, despite being one of the largest accounting scandal in history, I have never found a really good explanation of what happened with WorldCom. Glad to say you’re the first in my book to explain it clearly.
lemon skunnk
love that I actually learn something while listening to this great story. 👍👍
Tyson Krehnke
Sarbanes Oxley really did clean up a lot of this misconduct and thank god. I’m studying for the CPA exam currently while working in public accounting and the specificity with which companies are allowed to capitalize R/D related expenses is extremely narrow. As well as clear guidelines for what is a prepaid expense and what is a lease. It makes my job interesting and it sets a reasonable president for somebody like me who invests in publicly traded companies.
SeaBlue1976
Another excellent work by Dagogo.Thank you!
abhishek gupta
Appreciate the amount of comprehensive research put into these videos!
K T
Just a suggestion – could you look into the fall of Barings Bank?
Akshay Batra
The quality and content of all Coldfusion videos is truly a benchmark for any YT channel….
Manny dos Santos
Great video and the story clearly explained. How exec greed causes panic which leads to monumental blunders.
Henrik Christiansen
Great program…love these. Please keep them coming
Isaac Hartford
Beautifully researched and produced video. The editing, music, art style, voice and choice of topics collude perfectly. It’s a real joy to watch.
Buck Rogers
Dang, you make very good documentaries. Well researched, easy to digest.
Fabior
just what I needed! Dagogo, you’re a legend!
David Spez
Excellent analysis and research. Wonderful work, thank you 👍
Velvet Magician
My animation teacher in High School was caught up in the worldcom scandal near the end of it. She gave out a class lecture on it but I don’t remember much.
Alibe
Oh boy, another fraud to learn from 🤦🏻‍♂️ Thanks Dagogo for the video! ❤️
trax72
Well that explains all the reorganizations that happened when I worked for MCI/WorldCom around that time, eventually resulting in my department getting scrapped.
SKS TV
Hi ColdFusion! Just a friendly & humble observation. Over the years in your videos the post processing of voice-overs have changed. The vocal doesn’t sound the same as they were used to in your early videos (ex. the fall of Nokia video). Before it used to be a bit less upfront & more sophisticated, little far away from the microphone, less mid range on the ears. Your tonal texture of low end is missing, which make a it a little spooky and atmospheric. The vibe of suspense. Maybe there’s a extra high pass in the processing. Your voice is the money in your videos. Love your work. Cheers!
M Chambers
Yes, there are many other companies cooking their books. More scandals like this will continue.
Dan Kaldenbach
What a simple way to “cook the books” -I can understand why this only involved a handful of people. Wouldn’t require a ton of labour and accounting work, ( I assume). -Crazy Thanks again for the informative content Dagogo 👍
hypurban
“Are there any future Worldcoms out there” > Shows ColdFusion logo. Our boy Dagogo is cooking the books!
tanathosXX
Looking at what you’re producing, It could be used as learning material in business schools
Armchair Critech
Another informative at the same time engaging video. IT seems similar frauds are carried out even today (cooking thr books) e.g. wirecard scandal
Rahul B.
Thank you including your track names this time. I love your music ❤️
Arnfinn Rian
You always deliver Altrade. Great work!
Ellipsis115
13:50 “In my heart of hearts” is when you know someone is lying
SnoopyDoo
Just your typical Chef cookin’ the books.
xele fonte
Never thought I’d actually subscribe to Morning Brew but I love ColdFusion’s video so much, not to mention his credibility that I signed up. Will see if it’s any good…
Lauren Conrad
“When greed goes too far.” I think that’s all greed ever. Any greed is too much.
Bharat Patel
I am getting hooked to Coldfusion TV. fantastic presentation of fact. Thank you.
oceania68
There is always someone out there in the shadows waiting to rort the system, just as there is always someone waiting for your channel to make it known 😀
sinephase
I can almost understand the sheer panic caused by the dotcom burst but this should have been an eye opener about the way investors play stocks, not a reflection on the viability of a company in the long term or even the technology that underlies it. Bezos must feel like a genius for sticking it out with Amazon after this clusterfuck of a situation LOL
imicca
Company: does fraud Also company: ok lets fire all employees then
sdc86
Love all the scandal videos mate! Keep them coming!!
vivekv1922
I’ve been your subscriber since 2015. I love this channel. Never missed your videos. Thank you sir.
Patrick McCarron
My uncle George was a top executive at MCI in St. Louis, MO and put his entire net worth into the stock. He lost his job and everything and died in 2017. I think this had a big part to do with his early death. He still wanted to live the lifestyle he had in late 1990s and he couldn’t come to terms with having to rent an apartment and low pay job. He literally lost everything, his house, his wife, his brand new Saab with the fancy cup holder, everything was gone.
Frances Marrasso
Just found this channel so informative keep it coming love from Australia
Evony H
My former boss used to ask me to partake in creative accounting. I reluctantly did it once but once is never enough and fudging the numbers became a regular practice. I left that job ASAP… Wonder if his fraud was ever uncovered?
Masticina Akicta
On your question” Are there any other business right now out there like this” …yes inevitable. The question is, how big the fallout will be! Or how much money the business is worth or supposedly worth! What if Disney is cooking the books?
Tony DeanDriskell
AN IMPORTANT WARNING TO ALL SINGLE PARENTS My suggestion is a unpopular suggestion giving the fact that so many people are prescribed to ADHD meds. I suggest that ColdFusion does a quick video on doctors prescribing pre teens behavior altering meds. In my opinion these meds are the new gateway drug. Most of the time it is not the parent who is in pursuit of medicating they’re child yet the suggestion is often brought to them from a employee of the child’s school. Medicating children for behavior altering purposes will someday be looked at as a crime against humanity. I believe doctors and other people in the medical field deserve to be financially wealthy but if its at the cost of our youth then is it really worth it? We have to find a better way for these educated people to earn the money that they deserve. They have done all the hard work with school & are also very important to the function of a healthy society. They deserve to be financially compensated but prescribing our youth with behavior altering meds is wrong though & needs to be stopped! Especially giving the fact that these kids being prescribed have no say in the matter nor do they have rights protecting themselves like the rest of us adults have protecting us. This is a evil road that we have taken as a society and the results are starting to become clear. Most of these kids prescribed to ADHD meds eventually end up having to take more prescribed drugs in order to counter some of the side effects from the initial drug and this continues well into adulthood. How can anyone justify this? AMERICAN SOCIETY REVOLUTION AMERICAN INTERMEDIARY Kids in America aren’t being prescribed behavior altering meds do to having a problem with stress or simple aggression. Kids here are being prescribed ADHD meds because of supposed focus issues and also issues surrounding a wide range of supposed problematic type behavior. This decision to medicate our youth the way that we have been, will come back to haunt us! AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL PARENTS
Hoekstes
And this, along with Enron, signalled the end of Arthur Anderson as well. (Then one of the Big Five audit firms in the world).
blackflagnation
I used to work for a promotional marketing company in Atlanta, and WorldCom was one of our clients. I remember them having extravagant employee-appreciation events, and our company was tasked with delivering a bunch goodies with their logos printed on them. There was a WorldCom rep who would visit us to place these orders until the fateful day of scandal. That rep was one of the people laid off.
Jeeves
You should totally collect all the fraud videos in a playlist/series called “Lies, Greed & Deceit”
Tenfifty
This should be a case study for good internal audit in a company.
GeFlixes
I always think that “white-collar” crime, especially fraud and everything to do with finance, has very lenient punishments. Especially when you consider how many people it affects, that it may wipe out thousands of peoples’ retirement savings and many peoples’ jobs.
FlyWithMe666
Worldcom was so far ahead, they basically implemented IFRS 16 for line rentals decades before it became effective 😂 (but forgot the lease liability entry…)
John Doe
Your videos demonstrate how Youtube creators can have higher quality and better content than television and streaming platforms.
Tapster Dreamy
Hey dagogo been following from the beginning so much to learn from your videos which help me a lot
GradeY underY
every company i have worked for broke the law in one or another way. the bigger the company the bigger the greed. it just depends on how good they can manage to hide it.
Samy El Orfi
Even if I don’t understand all technical data, I love this series!
Peter
I remember when we had signed up with MCI Worldcom for our phone and telephone modem services. After like 2 years I found out that MCI had never charged me for my modem data usage (but they were charging me properly for my calls and phone service). That was like $25/month for 2 years. Shortly after I found this out and called them about it, they went kaput. They never asked me to pay up because it was their billing error. Crazy.
Aaron Long
You actually missed the single most important contributing factor as to why WorldCom couldn’t manage rising competition. In 1996, Ciena Communications introduced a new technology, Dense Wave-Division Multiplexing, a.k.a. DWDM, which suddenly permitted a 16-fold increase in the amount of data which could be sent down a single strand of fiber-optic media. Within a few years, any upstart telecom company with some fiber and through-ways could compete for a share of the burgeoning internet market, and this surge in supply of bandwidth meant that WorldCom’s debts suddenly became much more expensive, relative to the products they needed to sell to pay them off. In effect, the explosion of cheap long-haul fiber-optics gutted the value of all their mergers. This isn’t to say that the fraud Worldcom engaged in wasn’t real, or to indemnify the officers of the company in any way for lying to auditors, regulators, and the public about their accounts, but merely to explain why “rising competition” existed in a market which ordinarily held very high barriers to entry.
Neophlegm
Man I LIVE for your exposé vids on giant fraud/corruption cases. This, OneLife, Enron, Theranos… mwah. Chef’s kiss.
Jason Lopez
Great video bro appreciate the hard work keep them comin💯
tushar deysarkar
I am following cold fusion when it was not even 100k ❤️ just love this guy n also his book new thinking
Chris Alden in Alaska
They made a deal with a company called MFS to put in FOC in all over the country. They also owned a big stake in the FOC that parallels the Alaska Pipeline. The company than ran that FOC lost their pipeline contract and WorldCom sold the FOC to GCI for about 20 cents on a dollar. That happened early in 2000. One of WorldComm’s problems is they didn’t have a good inventory of all the places they had a FOC presence and sales couldn’t utilize all that dark FOC they were paying for.
Al cast
I was one of their customers since the days of MCI only before they hooked up with Worldcom but later on I grew to hate them for their chickenshit business practices and I became one of their victims and I could not shake them off even when I tried to terminate my business with them. they would automatically reconnect as my long-distance provider even though I canceled them multiple number of times. but now we know that’s probably when they were so desperate and in the process they ripped off a lot of people. In any case, I was happy to hear when they went out of business and I totally felt they deserved it. so, good riddance!! and they can go to hell!!
Xenta Atnex
I used to work for a telecom business that was aquired by WorldCom and I can remember the loss of coffee that came soon after the takeover.
Corinne Shea
Great investigative reporting👏 Glad to see you back, as I was just thinking of you the other day!!! I remember MCI WorldCom having some unscrupulous practices back in the day….
AlGoreRhythm
“hello, I have a totally legit, non-fraudulent business proposition for you, are you interested?” “what’s your name?” “Bernie” “lol no”
Zentosi
i remember when dagogo was just at 100kish subs now he’s about to go to 3 mill mad respect to you
Robert Wip
Superbe videos you make, mutch respect, and that’s a Dutch person saying/typing this to you, very understanding to, the way you do these, so again, mutch respect.
Soooby Rooo
I worked for a big implantable device company and was tasked with testing the new product and the new product failed yet they told me to repeat the tests and they failed again and I insisted this failure could be very dangerous and they told me they would just have somebody else do the tests who would pass them that I must be doing something wrong. I left that company thinking I would find a better company to work for. Somebody else passed the test and they must have faked it. They went ahead and passed this new implantable device through the FDA with the new failing product in it and 40,000 people had that device implanted in them and they all had to be told a year after that that they needed to have that device reprogrammed or taken out surgically. When I confronted my bosses with the failures I was hollered at and told that I was costing the company money and I said but these devices could cost people lives. That didn’t matter I was treated like shit and I left for a better company and made more money but they turned out to be just as dirty so I left the industry altogether.
Rodney Prak
I was in prison with him in FMC. He got beat up by some Mexicans for saying something smart and pretty much lost his eye sight due to that attack. He wouldn’t tell the warden who attacked him so they put him back to general population. He’s extremely skinny now, and pretty much lost his mind. During his family visits they just sit there in silence and sometimes he cries. It’s sad.
Reba Miller Realtor
I was a MCI Major Acct Manager starting in 1998. MCI was such a great company. WorldCom Clevels took everything good to the ground. I also lost about $50K in my 401K and those stock options………..wasted paper.
Euphonik Prince
13:11 Elon Musk also secure his Bank loans with his Tesla Stoks as a collateral. He on Twitter said that he would sell 10% of his stocks, actually he wanted to sell stocks to pay his Debt and as a result Tesla Stoks fell and he lost $50 Billion lol
Summer Snow
I have personally worked for companies, large listed companies, that only care about meeting financial numbers every quarter. Yes, there are many potential worldcoms out there. As I always believe if the employees are pressured constantly to make the numbers, they will eventually make up the numbers.
Zapio
So close to 3 million, I wish you all success to get there sooner than later! <3
William Womack
I grew up in the community where this happened and when everyone found out it was a fraud people were shocked and one of my friends grandfather had a heart attack and died when it was announced all the companies money would be frozen and that world com would go under investigation.. Many other people I went to school with parents and grandparents lost all their money investing in world com.
Darrylizer1
My sister worked for MCI prior to the merger and had absolutely nothing good to say about Bernie Ebbers or Worldcom. She said their business was characterized by inefficiency and chaos. Talk about biting off more than you could chew. She now works for Verizon.
Jack Carrington
“are there any future World Com’s out there?” – to the extent that Elon Musk actually runs it (I forget the exact set-up, and players), Tesla, probably.
Eric Johnson
I’m surprised, one person actually went to prison over this.
Jayvishwa Hiwase
This channel is one of my all time fav till date on youtube. So informative and knowledge without boring. Keep it up 👍🏻
Chris W
Sad to see so much damage by something a first year bookkeeper should have known better about.
IndigoStarAz
Informative. High production value.
Stephanie Lauren Bounds
I remember when the proposed Sprint merger was blocked by the Justice Department and the European Union. I remember my late Mom and I thinking that when the merger was blocked that was the beginning of the end for WorldCON.
retpal
When I was younger I got the service. It was a nightmare dealing with them and the charges were shady. In fact, they overcharged me and had to get the help of my bank to get my money.
science & tech freakers
LITERALLY JUST GOT UP FROM STUDYING SAME THING AND I WAS FINDING ITS DOCUMENTARY AND HERE IT IS!!😍😍😍😍
Blue
Love this type of research videos, keep it up mate…have a look at GE and Jack Welsh too please.
Pranab
hey man can you make another on the current covid 19 situation in world as you did previous year?? it’s really very tricky to understand this mutation stuff
KL0Wn KiLLeR
I worked for Worldcom from 2000-2004 at a subsidiary company. I made it to the third (and last) round of layoffs. I lost my entire 401K. We used to hear stories about Bernie Ebbers that he would go around and open up supply cabinets and fire people if there were too many rolls of toilet paper or paper towels were kept on the shelves. I heard that one secretary that workrd for Bernie was scolded because she bought too many boxes of pens for the office supply cabinet. This guy was a real piece of work.
IeatyellowSNO
As always, a psychopath abuses employees and lavishes on himself and his goon squad. All of these awful CEOs get passes to destroy lives because captialism is more important than regulations.
RubADub Media
ColdFusion could change his channel name to “When greed goes too far” at this point lol
Bob Bob
Stock footage can be really funny sometimes if you pay attention. 11:15 – “Scott Sullivan called her on the phone..” Working at a telecom company must be awesome, as it allows you to make your phone number 911.
Zee Gorman
I also worked for MCI which was bought by Worldcom. When it went bust, I lost 30k worth of stock options.
BrokenATM
The music and voice are so great. I just want to learn more and more, I want books read by you dude.
Jase Alan
My uncle owned one of the companies that WorldCom bought out. He and my aunt lived in Hawaii in a huge home with Mountain View in the front and ocean view in the back. Then that scandal hit and he had to sell his stock at $3 a share. They were able to keep up living there for a good while as they opened a small business. They now live in Oregon in a moderate home but still pushing through life.
Kayode Akinwumi
There are always going to be worldcoms as long as we have public companies looking to make shareholders happy especially in industries experiencing seismic shifts. I’m pretty sure if a lot of countries had strong SEC governance like USA or EU, more stories like this would be out there
candace bruner
Dishearteningly, THIS differs from the “WorldCom/Enron” type scandals of 2021 (& maybe even a yr or two earlier) for 1 major reason: ACCOUNTABILITY THEN vs. EXCUSES & BAILOUTS NOW
Donald Pero
Great work. Keep it up!
Lucy's Son Talk Show
So many of the people on these videos could have been so successful with it fraud and lies its truly astonishing how someone can get so far and literally destroy what they made
Sirvival205
“are there any future worldcom out there?” of course, of course there are.
Don Cupit
I found it so hard to believe that degrees was so strong that he was blinded to the fact that his actions would one day come back on him. It’s a shame he didn’t himself
Flavorsome Music
I love this channel’s production. Very high quality videos. Thank you for your work. ^^
Adam Petten
some of the only YT videos that i watch for over 15 minutes. i really like these videos on companies and how big etc.. keep it up.
The Jamnasium
I grew up in Hattiesburg, MS (90 miles or so south of Jackson) and I remember my dad losing (what to us was) a lot of money during this but I was too young to understand why.
Boo Kaufman
There has always been a secondary reaction to a bad economic market downturn in this country and that is that the banks ask the companies they lend to to pay up and companies that have been cheating on their finances then end up folding. The taxpayer, the consumer and especially the investors are then forced to pay for the loss. This will probably happen again in the next couple of years as we are forced to deal with the results of government overspending to help support the covid damaged economy. It doesn’t mean that the government did the wrong thing but there will be a price to pay for it and when the market turns down again because of that all of the rats will leave the sinking ship.
dosmastrify
” I wonder are there any other worldComs” //Thernos has left the chat.
yohanes nainggolan
Cyntia Cooper was the unsung Hero in this case. I once read that she orders her employee to work in nightshift and move the data they found into disks to avoid the data they found would be deleted or destroyed. Her family also notice some change in herself. She often sleep very late in the night, she often ask her family whether what she was doing is right or wrong.
Xj 007
Our CFO told us to do the same, when I Informed the Owners and he resigned! lol, I was only the Accountant though!
AlcoholicDysonSphere
2:48 shows when a hardworking and frugal mentality that i actually respect a lot goes too far
Nedwin L.H.
Nice as always Dagogo. A pleasure to watch this.
Matt Thacker
I just love this channel it’s fascinating
Tesla
Great episode! There’s infinite amount of greed. Next pop will be USDT
coda creator
This is the real danger of compensating executives with stock options to avoid income taxes. A perfect example. Execs will do anything to protect their compensation, especially when that compensation is subject to value fluctuations of the market. Ditto swapping pensions for 401(K) plans. The risk is insanely high. It also begs the question, at what point have you accumulated enough wealth? None of the richest guys in America live on cash, but borrowed money secured by assets whose value can tank. Meantime, they essentially live a very low-cost existence, compared to the average working American who must choose every day the best way to divest themselves of their only asset: their paycheck.
EvilCat
Hey could you create a video on the Kardashev Scale? I’m pretty sure your creativity and narration can make it very entertaining and interesting to watch.
James Rodriguez
This episode refreshed my knowledge in Accounting.
Eddy Bell
I worked for UUNET back in the late 90s, it had been acquired by WorldCom through acquisition of our parent company MFS. UUNET provided internet services to large companies such AOL which utilized huge bandwidth. In early or mid 1999 we had an all-hands in Virginia and Bernie had come to speak. Afterwards question were taken from the floor. An engineer asked, to the best of my recollection, why we were building out high capacity lines to small business parks that couldn’t utilize it . Ebbers responded with a long complicated explanation about economics of scale and the financial out lay etc. It sounded rather hokey to me but in effect he was saying, I had read the company’s financial reports and this was the correct business response. Some years later, at his trial, I read that when asked this same question about large bandwidth outlay, despite poor utilization, he replied he didn’t know much about that and had found the financial reports too complicated so he threw them in the garbage can.
David Collins
This type of fraud is being perpetrated by my guesstimate 30% of the publicly traded companies today
Mncedisi Nelson Mlumbi
You just know real content when you see it, absolutely lovely storytelling.
Olusola Eseyin
How does anyone dislike such a well researched and factual video? You’d have to be in the Ebbers club to do
Jsetennis
That day sucked, when they told us” we are shutting down the call center” 😭
subliminalvibes
To understand the scale of this kind of fraud, first you must fathom just how much bigger a billion is to a million. Tom Scott did a cool video about it! 👍😎
Hernán Ruíz
ColdFusion could make videos about paint drying and I’d still watch/listen attently
Phillip Mulligan
This hits way too close to home. My mother invested 3/4 of her savings in a company called Principal Trust in Canada in the 1990s. She lost the majority of the money until the Federal government stepped in and refunded 2 cents on every dollar lost up to $10,000. Alberta was the epicenter of the Principle Trust fraud and contributed to the suicide of over 20 people who lost all their life’s savings. The Owner of Principle Trust never faced Canadian Prosecution after fleeing to Bahamas.
crispy
Here’s a suggestion for current times “The Rise and Influence of Rupert Murdoch” Looking at his early days in newsprint in Australia, The Sun in UK, his political clout and the way politicians responded. Might be a bit of a handful, but worth looking at just so people realise how powerful the man is in the world.
The Modding Prodigy
And then there are people like us, trying to run an honest business in this pandemic, barely making ends meet. These kind of stories make our journey look such futile at times but in the end, people does pay for wrongdoing. I always look forward to your content and enjoy your videos though. Such great presentation
bwtv147
It looks a lot like the mergers and acquisitions “investment”, i.e. spending, spree Bob Iger has been on at Disney.
Paul Richards
Accounting is very hard to get right. Even when everyone is just trying to do it right, it’s still hard.
Joshua So
“Y’all ever heard of WorldCom?!” – Stringer Bell
dhananjay krishna
Clod fusion brings old forgotten scams for the newer generation people with complete details. Keep it up!!
G.B.
Cool stuff, been waiting for your take on this one 🙂 !
ゲームXygdra
What i learnt from all these financial frauds: Just do it. You can have the best of your life living lavishly, get busted and sit in jail for 5 or more years, get out, write and book and repeat if you want to…. even though financial fraud indirectly fk over a lot of people everywhere. Should the jail sentence/bill be increased so prevent all these from repeating again and again?
yusuf issa
Love your videos! Can you do a video on Grensil capital and GFG alliance? Major scandal that has a global ramifications for a lot of ppl in UK, Australia, Europe, etc. Big fan, thanks!!!!
L killkeny
The second that greed is the motivation to do anything then someone is going to suffer, somewhere in someway. Even a tiny amount of greed is too much greed and has gone too far. There is a reason that greed is listed as one of the seven deadly sins. Too bad that the world is dominated by greedy behavior. I think that it will be the undoing of civilization unless the priorities of most people on the planet shift 180 degrees. Selling this notion to the masses is a monumental task but getting the tiny minority of the population that are very wealthy to change will be even more difficult, as they have the power and influence at the moment.
Master_Misanthrope
Imagine working for a company that charges you for your coffee…
Danny Hughes
Speaking of ‘The Net’ it seems that Business Bosses doing the wrong thing manage too often to slip through the net while the small fry get caught and pay the price.
Cracktune
great stuff, yet again. people are so amazed that i dont watch netflix or even own a tv… this is why
Nate
My Dad worked for one of their last acquisitions, moved us to Florida and laid off employees when this all unraveled
John Anthony DiMeglio
15:30m The case for FCC Securities Fraud prosecution. Note that had this been discovered by the investors, or published generally, there would have been an immediate standing standing to sue for a shakeup at the very least. That would have been required under corporate law.
Fallen
My fav channel on YouTube, keep doing this man
Akinade Adeleye
Can’t wait for a video on a certain hedge fund about to implode because of this same reason. Greed!!
Muffs 55mercury
The corporate graveyard is full of corpses like this destroyed by greed. I like this series a lot.
Faustin
Ebbers sounds like a hard-working man. Yes, greed took its toll on him but, hey everybody can relate!
Cr4y7
Speaks towards the power of our system to let those companies fail
LoL LoL
These documentaries are very informative. Can you please one about Nissan and Carlos Ghosn ? Thanks.
Jose G
True story this hit the whole world. Supermarkets went broke. Everyone had no money. It was only a telecommunications company but it hit hard.
Christopher Flack
Any chance you could do a video on Tom Girardi ? Would love to see that.
Al Gernon
WorldCom was my Client in the US and Europe. It was sad what Ebbers and his team did to the once great innovative company MCI (who revolutionized the telecommunications industry). In fact MCI’s Vint Cerf inventor of the TCP/IP build out the forerunner to what is known today as the Internet. Ebbers was a deeply corrupt and greedy man and surrounded himself with individuals who aligned with his immoral behavior.
moksh
This looks quite similar to Enron. Treating something as an income or assets when they are not.
cmerk100
“GAAP says you can’t do that” yeah GAAP says that, but also the argument he used doesn’t make sense for a prepaid asset. They are on a lease contract with monthly payments, and when the lease expires, so does what you paid for. Also theres a limit to capacity anyways, its not like you stockpile what you paid for each month and now its available to you forever for that one really busy month. It’s something that only sounds like a good idea to people who don’t understand what leasing is or how the internet works.
Stephan Boyyy
Thank you for including all the songs in the video description!
In Out Door
I honestly read the title as “When weed goes too far”, and thought I was about to watch a PSA.
eggsngrits
WorldCom also manipulated their accounts receivable by billing through a subsidiary and taking payments through the parent. I discovered this when a collection agency contacted me about an “unpaid” $400 bill. I reviewed my past statements and they showed the $400 charges, but also a $400 credit that had never been applied to my account. In this way they could show two $400 credits on the balance sheet: $400 in revenue and $400 in accounts receivable. It happened to many others.
Kevin 'The Skull' Anderson
We are not going into a cashless society; we are already in one now and many of us don’t know it yet. And it’s only because of the fact that money, not the love of it, is the root of all evil — especially when too much of it at one time is in the wrong person’s dirty hands.
Jingx
Yes you finally cover this!
Wandile Mawelela
When content and music are both amazing. Lovely.
john bergamini
Of course there are other WorldCom-like stories out there. As an engineer who has witnessed most of my productive labor stolen by corporate agents during my life while this wholly evidenced theft goes unreported, it’s surprising the economy manages to sputter along despite the burden of the kleptocracy.
Al cast
AT&T was a monopoly and I was happy to hear that they were split up. at that time MCI was a wirelessly-monitoring trucking business. monitoring and Wireless Communications for semi trucks on the road. With the AT&T split up MCI saw the opportunity to get into the long-distance business and they did. I saw MCI as a new company and Underdog so I signed up with them and it only became a nightmare. eventually I couldn’t shake them off and I grew to hate them. I was only too happy to learn they went out of business. May they burn in hell!!
Joelle Davis
FINALLY another corporate scandal episode!! Been waiting for this!
Darkness8536
Gotta love the Enron and Worldcom scandals. Yet. Not enough punishment for the masterminds.
Ammar Mohideen
Missed this voice for quite a while ..
weeliano
Brian Tracy said it best which I will paraphrase, if you want to learn about the future study the past ; whatever that has happened in the past will happen again. This is not the last time we will see such corporate shenanigans. Great video!
Matthew Bizzarri
I remember the rise and fall of Worldcom, which they originally came from Brookhaven, MS, built HQ in Clinton, MS, and moved to DC and NY later. The IT guys I met were surprised at how much they got paid there, and they jumped ship as soon as things started going sown hill as other companies were poaching anyone there. It was the wild west during the dot com boom. Mississippi was mortified that Bernie screwed everyone. A lot of locals were heavily invested. It was one of the best things Mississippi had to move towards the now instead of always being behind. It was a great run, and no love lost on him dying. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed before prison.
N F
There’s a big difference between greed and stinginess. Greedy people want what they don’t own, stingy people want to keep what they owe.
John H
It does really highlight a fundamental issue in “Double Entry Accounting” in that both Assets (a Positive) and Expenses (a Negative) appear as “Debits” (DR) in Financial Records. They can be shuffled (at least) temporarily, to hide issues under euphemistic titles. Keeping the lie going though is impossible. I doubt Ebbers knew as much as the SEC have said, and he (possibly) should have received the lesser sentence of the three. Sullivan should definitely still be inside, and Myers should have got 10 years.
billy belk
A friend of mine believed Burney’s lies and when it cashed , he lost over $300,000 in one day . I told him not to do it but he was buying Sprint at $60. It dropped to $11 and never recovered.
PistonAvatarGuy
The efficiency of capitalism is just amazing to me, just one multi-billion dollar scam after another! So productive!
Yaroslav Mytkalyk
If I were asked to specify liabilities as assets I would respond like “so you ask me to go to prison for you?”
Harvey017
Saw the notification and clicked so fast.
Bravo6
ALL senior decision making posts (CEO, CFO, BoD etc) of any firm must spend 1 year before taking that post doing case studies about at least 10 firms that went down in history because of misconducts like like these.
ejhockey
Another great video. Thanks Dagogo.
puckerings
“When greed goes too far”? Greed ALWAYS goes too far. That’s why it’s called greed.
Sir Sluginston
Another great video from ColdFusion!
Spiceybooger Spiceybooger
I worked as a temp at MCI and became a permanent employee when the crap hit the fan…when I tell you we all thought it was strange they bought MCI…we were who the hell is Worldcom? The were doing some shady shit. Our department came out squeaky because we tracked everything we did…I still do this.Also because I was just hired when this happened…I was working at a temp salary because every thing was frozen. Cynthia was awesome we loved her in our Dept. I still work in finance…I stayed with them through Verizon and still would be there today if I wanted to move to California.
Nice Shot
Imagine an Elon Musk episode about fraud 10 years from now
HeroWillRose
If I was American investigator of FCC, I would revises the practices of anyone at anytime of any companies conducting business in American soils, no CFO nor CEO dares to fakes such large fall out investors moneys for so long before disgracefully discovered. Stiffness penalty, restitutions virtually, minimum 15 years in prison- no release early.
Colin Kay
100% certain cast-iron guarantee there are other Worldcoms out there. Especially the ones pretending to make a “loss”
Mr Blue Sky
I have a feeling that în 10 years from bow we will see episodes on Twitter, FB, Insta, Amazon, Tesla, X space and Patreon
apidas
Imagine being/having a co-founder just to commit fraud against the company.
simbriant
They really need to make it illegal for a business to declare bankruptcy, shut down one day, then start the next day under a different name to ‘save’ their reputation.
Gabriel Alan
Being of age and how to manage the sequence of returns in those early periods is what seems quite scary in the current market. The market is never a loser in the twenty year cycle, but the 2000s decade scenario scares me and could really disrupt my retirement. When you’re no longer accumulating but withdrawing, it’s hard to be anything but cautious.
H H
Love all the scandal videos. Pls make them on as many as you can.
Dutch Barracuda
The sheer magnitude of the numbers you mention is staggering. Millions and billions in dollars, while I’ve yet to even successfully hold 5 thousand at any point in my life. And then for these business men to nonchalantly make up numbers as they go along, just to look good, too maintain a lifestyle so beyond the reach of billions of people. It’s mind boggling.
Mrs. Robinson
Being American I’m so thankful we can go back to worrying about gas prices, food, housing prices and a severe housing shortage, open borders and war instead of mean tweets. I mean how do we survive mean tweets!? 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
James Nash
Also, they were on the hook for three years of leases. Due to competition, no traffic/income flow through their leased phone lines. Question, why didn’t they brainstorm with their employees for solutions such as fileing for bankruptcy, or try to negotiate better terms on the lease ect..? They turned to cooking the books? What? There had to be other legal Solutions.
Elston Best
This was an eye opener I love that true story
Jasper Ophelia
Successful people don’t become that way overnight. most people see at a glance-wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life.
Jorgen Von Strangle
When greed goes so far it turns into the USA. where 10% of the population has over 50% of the total money in the economy safety tucked away in their savings accounts. Leaving 90% to split the remaining
meschuggemil
“When greed goes too far (capitalism)”
Vick Clash
Another great work from cColdFusion
John Weir
Question about the first part of the video: why didn’t the communication infrastructure owners sell services to customers directly?
Dustin Lesinger
Stop me when you’ve heard this before “We’re going to report the value of our assets as whatever our fearless leader thinks they are at the time” eh, eh, come on you know it’s genius level thinking…
Gemineye The Nine
Are there any other Worldcoms out there? Why yes, I believe many more because there is a thin line between wealth and greed.
Video Games Incorporated
I think I’m watching too many company videos. When I heard the $3 billion in false entries I thought to myself “well that’s not THAT bad”
Iamdr3wski3
When Greed Goes Far: The Story Of Shitadel
Fresh Finds
Hi Folks! WOW Cold Fusion, thank you for your amazing videos! I think many are motivated to be rich to buy lavish lifestyle istead of being actually impactful for the society. Anyway, if you plan to visit Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the most beautiful tropical countries in the world, please let me know. I can help you arrange accomodations! 😀
Patrick Mc Carten
I was hoping that the report would mention that the company had a practice of slamming phone customers, i.e. taking over someone’s phone account by devious means and issuing bills at hugely inflated rates.
Let’s just check the “Early Life” section in his Wiki page and …yep. Every. Single. Time.
jim
I think it’s very generous to say the senior management just assumed the people above them knew what they were doing. More like they had no moral backbone or financial incentive to stick there necks out.
Ruhr Red Army
Any greed is by definition always too far.
lllllllllllll
Proverbs 21:6 The acquisition of treasures by a lying tongue Is a fleeting vapor, the pursuit of death.
BottledBanana
4:44 wild how a man who used to run his own motel and wash bedsheets would later borrow money for luxuries. You’d think people who practice modest lifestyles would simply appreciate the luxury of stress-free living and having time to enjoy simple pleasures, and not necessarily feel the compunction to make a habit of extravagant spending. People too easily forget humility and humble beginnings, it seems.
MERLIN
I remember that MCI WORLDCOM tried to convince me to invest, and I almost sunk 5k in but the Great Spirit would not give me the nod to invest. LoL 😆 May the Great Spirit watch over you 🙏
TheLoneTerran
There really needs to be better oversight for companies. They should be examined thoroughly and often by government oversight departments and neutral third party auditors. If companies were represented as what they’re truly worth instead of speculations, the market would be healthier I believe. I don’t know if all the findings should be publicly reported as soon as made available, since that seems like it would hinder a lot of R&D, and projects to surprise the competition, but they should at least frequently monitored. The market isn’t going to regulate itself. If it were capable of doing so, we wouldn’t keep having these ‘once in a lifetime’ financial events.
Tariqslo
Thank you for this great piece
Gary Brown
Now, I know more and truly understand it. Good job.
mike young
For the sake of accuracy, we’ll call Jackson, Mississippi “Jacksonville”.
Steve George
Bravo! Well Done! More please…
7z
Accounting problem, also seen in wirecard, enron etc
Andrew Palla
This kind of thing is scary as a young person trying to grow their financial portfolio. What company that’s seemingly doing well is habouring some dirty secrets?!
Ocean Dark
Wait… 5:00 You’re saying there was a time when we blocked mergers on antitrust grounds? Because we wanted to retain competition in areas like telecommunications? That’s a novel idea…
Hoggmanpoland
It’s so ironic that all of this started as the result of breaking up the greedy corporate monster known as AT&T! How’s that working out so far?
Laura
Nice video!! Very engaging from beginning to end. Nevertheless, businesses and investment are the easiest way to make money irrespective of which party makes it to the oval office.
M C
One of the best channels on YT
Brandon Turk
I don’t think that there is any other legitimate way to earn money nowadays rather than investing
ProtonPersona2010MD11
Reminds me of a online platform we have in Malaysia, its like eBay but orange. Back then when they first began they were great, endless free shipping, great customer services that helps you with everything and anything (like shipping and order problems) And now once they were the top of the world, they start shifting from customer satisfaction to profit gains. You only get 1 free shipping per month (and it’s limited, it’ll get all used up within a minute). You can choose your own service carrier, they chose it for you, this ended up more problems with delays and wrong information. You can’t choose what method you want to play your item with anymore, you have to use their service (its like a e-wallet and you have to top it up if you want to buy items, this make sure that you won’t have control with your money anymore. And lastly, they allow anyone to open a shop on the platform, all you need is a phone number. Scammers start to increase rapidly and the platform did little to non to solve the problem, heck they even started helping the scammers because they bring them revenue.
Luis A. S.
I don’t know if you still have time to read the comments, but I would love to see a video about Engesa, a Brazilian company that went bankrupt after expending millions of dollars to beat the M1A1 Abrams tank, due to the USA government interference in a bid for a Saudi Arabia contract.
Bruce Bean
About 2012 I had a neighbor that told me that in “90”s he had to testify in NYC district Court as CFO of a multi national co. that i can not name. Securities fraud , “cooking the books” he escaped jail by saying ; : “I was just following ordens from boss” ,Who went to Jail. Justice?
Admin Rose Garden
Of course they are more out there! The medieval, vassal like mindset of employees toward the man/woman in charge is un-challanged in most societies, no matter the geography, so the source of the problem hadn’t changed at all…
Pratik Vyas
OMG DAGOGOOOO!! THIS WAS AN EPIC STORY I NEVER KNEW ABT!! I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW TODAY COLDFUSION IS THE BEST JOURNAL ON THE INTERNET!!
Rose Kemp
Made it within one minute? Hell yeah!
Thor the Norwegian
wow. there is a datacentre in the Vollebekk area of Oslo that was once branded MCI Worldcom. later it was branded Verizon. i had no idea this was why. i’ve been in that datacentre for many many hours to maintain servers.
mason wakefield
It still blows my mind these guys get like 5 years while some petty thieves in california got life
Jearl Spier
Greed is outrageous no matter what amount it is because he destroys lives and the people who can’t fight back by legal means has to find other means to get there eye for eye and tooth for tooth
de hash
I can’t imagine how much coffee they were drinking if he was able show some profit after first few month…
johnnybgoodeish
“No legacy is so rich as honesty” -Bill Shakespeare still being very relevant today! Thanks Bill!
Thomas Connor
Homeowners will at some point become a rich man’s game in the long run. I mean I do know of someone who owned a house in the 1970s who only had to work a regular paying job and supporting his stay at home wife and were living just fine. Now paid off and retired and living the peaceful life. That same concept cannot be applied today but who would’ve thought that it wouldn’t at the time? The same reason why you think homeownership being a rich man’s game isn’t possible in the future yet it might just be.
Sparco Sunetti
It’s very interesting that you recommend a news service that sponsor your channel as “completely free” considering the subject of the video. We all know that all “free lunches” has to be payed one way or another. How do the subscribers to the news service pay in the end?
James Nash
Ok, why did the company resort to “cooking the books”? A corporation can only play the “three card monte” accounting game for so long because At some point this manipulation is going to be discovered. And when the manipulation is discovered and reported, it’s too late because now it’s time to litigate. The accountant should have terminated that position the minute he was directly instructed to cook the books.
cjtan02
This, along with other scandals, paved way to the new lease accounting model in IFRS 16.
adni muhammad
One of the most underrated channel in youtube
Csaba Banki
4:58 Thank god, I was worried he was getting the biggest ranch on some other planet.
Albert-Stefan Stancu
If you’d come to Romania, you’ll have information for content infinitely.
Nik the BMW chap
I don’t think it’d be too much of a surprise for something of this ilk to come out of the Tesla emporium! As Elon and Tesla hating is so much ‘of the moment’. I will just add either way, I have no dog in the fight. Him, his cars, and also his company bring nothing to bear with me.
Stefan Schleps
During the trump admimistration corruption and fraud were being committed on a massive scale. Maybe still are. Thats why institutional oversight is a must in a free and just society. Unfortunately it is the consumer and the average citizen who most often pay the price. Your reporting was excellent. Keep up the good work.
Sudarshan Kakoty
Worldcom is the most intelligent fraud I have ever seen. Manipulation of cash flow needs some brains 😆
Jamster
“I wonder if there are other Worldcoms out there?” Elizabeth Homes: HAHAHAHA HOLD MY BEER!
Ubiquity
Greed and Vanity are their down fall , lesson of the day.
origin 800
Never been so early for a coldfusion video, what a win!
Kunal Thirani
Incorrectly classifying expenses as assets to shore up profitability and the stock’s book value is such a basic and obvious flaw and fraud. Given the magnitude of the numbers on this account, it would be red flagged with ease. Therefore, it’s quite a wonder that financial analysts across sectors who must’ve advised clients to invest in this company’s stocks failed to detect this basic level fraud. Banal is the word!
Mohammad Jamal
Well documented and fact based analytical documentary. Well done. Greed kills!
dust_channel
MCI was one of the biggest employers in my hometown. Sad stuff.
Martin D Turner
Small point of order since I am from, and lived in, the US in the 1980s (Silicon Valley). In 1985 there was very little cell phone service; you had to be pretty well off to afford, and use, one of those behemoth cell phones. The point being: very few folks had cell phones in The Valley then. Any more out there you ask? Two words are all you need: Silicon Valley. e.g. When will Apple or Alphabet or their ilk be caught with the collective pants down? Only a matter of time …
Dan Don
you probably won’t see this comment but I have to say I came across your channel today and I have been watching the videos. You are doing a great job
AVINASH REDDY ANKIREDDY
I’m the Second viewer of this video . It shows how much I’m loving ColdFusion Tv 📺 .
mrrossisp x
Well done, Great content
Mikkel
6:40 “I don’t like these numbers, put in some better looking ones” “But that would be lying” “Not if we earn the money later”
tj8422
Seems small, but I also don’t trust someone who thinks taking away free coffee from employees is a way to get ahead ☕🚫
tomtom
This got off to a silly start with “William Shakespeare once said …” Then we find that Douglas Lake Ranch is “the largest privately owned ranch on planet earth”. Did the authors bother to check the ownership of Anna Creek Station, more than 4 times larger? Two minor but obvious problems; they make me doubt the accuracy of the whole video.
norm lor
HOW EXACTLY AT WHAT POINT IS GREED GOING TOO FAR, IT SEEMS THAT A PURSE SNATCHED FROM AN ELDERLY WOMAN IS FINE BUT STEALING BILLIONS ISN’T ACCEPTABLE???!!!
Marky Marc
Yes. There is another worldcom in the future, we just don’t know about it yet!!
Sean Warren
“No coffee for you, I need another yacht” sums up capitalism perfectly.
John Anthony DiMeglio
14:30m This is the option to overcoming loss of business forward positioning. Being ruthless in the marketplace is the first choice.
David Grisanti
They actually met at a coffee shop in Hattiesburg,MS not Jacksonville. Jacksonville actually isn’t a city in Mississippi. Thanks for the great content! Keep it up!
Oscar Yiu
“If there are any other Worldcoms out there. Yes, Wall Street.