WorldCom investors receive $6bn payout
WorldCom investors receive $6bn settlement while former chief executive Bernie Ebbers gives up string of vauable personal assets
A US judge last night gave final approval to a $3.6bn (£2bn) legal settlement
between over a dozen investment banks and WorldCom investors stemming from the
telecoms company’s collapse three years ago.
Yesterday’s deal, together with an earlier settlement by Citigroup worth
nearly $2.6bn, is expected to deliver more than $6bn to more than 830,000
individual and institutional investors who are part of the class action case.
Former chief executive Bernie Ebbers is surrendering personal assets
including his multimillion dollar home in Mississippi, a marina, a golf course,
a hotel and several thousand acres of timberland as part of the settlement with
investors.
He was convicted of fraud earlier this year and sentenced to 25 years in
prison, but is expected to appeal against his conviction.
The settlement, approved by Manhattan federal judge Denise Cote in a written
ruling, involves banks such as JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. At its peak
WorldCom was valued at $180bn, but in 2002 filed for the biggest ever bankruptcy
after an $11bn accounting fraud was discovered.