July 16, 2005, Is this a great time or what?
Our visit to Pravda tells us about a major fallen industrial oligarch... but with its usual twist, the oligarch we are talking about is none other than former MCI/Worldcom chief Bernard Ebbers, just convicted and sentenced to 25 years for fraud charges associated with pumping up the books of the failed telecom giant.
Regardless of his philanthropic activities, the Worldcom bankruptcy, then the largest in American history, resulted in untold billions of dollars in lost value, including presumably by the usual widows and orphans who invest in "rock solid telephone companies". Bernie's books-cooking also helped bring an acceleration to an overall equities market decline, and the imposition of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other measures, in order to at least try to restore confidence to public markets amidst massive, systemic fraud (oh, btw, Kenny Boy Lay remains a free man... presidential pardon in reserve, only if absolutely necessary.)
Certainly, it is unusual to see a successful, indeed, Forbes 400 at one time, white male, not only convicted, but facing actual justice in this country in the form of an effective life sentence... of course, Dennis Koslowski presumably knows a thing or two about that... Are times a changing? Stay tuned...