CRIME DOES PAY
WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan gets 5 years in prison
By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — In a textbook example of how cooperation with government prosecutors can pay big dividends, former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan received a five-year sentence in federal court here, despite the fact that he was the principal architect of one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the U.S. capital markets.
Scott Sullivan leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan Thursday.
Stephen Chernin, Getty Images
In sentencing Sullivan, whose guilty pleas to three criminal counts exposed him to a maximum sentence of 22 to 27 years, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones saluted him for his exemplary cooperation with the government's prosecution of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers.
"He provided information about private conversations he had with Mr. Ebbers, without which Mr. Ebbers could not have been indicted," Jones said.
Still, the judge said, "Mr. Sullivan's offenses were of the highest magnitude. Mr. Sullivan, I believe, was the architect of the fraud at WorldCom."
In March, a jury convicted Ebbers, 63, of instigating an $11 billion fraud at WorldCom, the exposure of which cost thousands of employees their jobs and drove the company into bankruptcy.