What caused employees at WorldCom to become complicit with the fraud?
“Most people don’t wake up and say – I want to become a criminal today. Instead, they venture down a slippery slope one step at a time. “Some of the mid-level managers felt pressured by superiors and were afraid of losing their jobs and having no way to support their families. They also began to rationalize their decision – it must be okay if their bosses told them to do it. I think the Controller felt a sense of misguided loyalty to the CFO. The CFO felt pressure to meet Wall Street earnings guidance and told himself that he was trying to save the company. Top level executives, who were accustomed to being praised on Wall Street, likely felt a sense of pride and didn’t want to see the company fail on their watch. Greed may have come in to play with executives who had substantial wealth at risk.” Are companies any better, ethically, since WorldCom? “The sub-prime crisis indicates that there is still a great deal of work to be done to protect the capital markets and promote transparency
