Worldcom

Worldcom was the number two United States long-distance telephone carrier, but inquiries into the company's accounting practices in 2002 led to the resignations of its top executives and the filing of fraud charges by the SEC. The company has filed a plan of reorganization under bankruptcy protection. Worldcom filed for bankruptcy-court protection in July 2002 after it had begun to disclose an accounting fraud that people close to the situation say has since ballooned to roughly $11 billion. The bankruptcy filing wiped out the value of stock that had been worth a total of $180 billion at its peak. In May, WorldCom agreed to settle the SEC's civil fraud charges by paying $500 million to shareholders who lost money because of the accounting fraud. The additional funds were added to the settlement to address concerns raised by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York, who is overseeing the civil case.

Since the crash of the number two United States long...