The New York Times reports that former CFO Scott Sullivan, who was sacked in the light of the $4bn blackhole, tried to persuade the internal auditor, Cynthia Cooper, to postpone her capital accounts review in May.
Cooper had already began looking at the accounts before Sullivan intervened. He then tried to get her to delay looking at the accounts until later in the year, by which time he was hoping to “write down” the expenses in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigating the WorldCom accounting scandal have appointed former SEC head Richard Breeden to review payments to leading company executives and ensure that WorldCom does not shred important documents relevant to the inquiry.