A retention program created two years ago that paid more than 550 top executives an average of US$425,000 each to prevent them from leaving the company expires July 30. Recruiters said Thursday that many senior operating, marketing and technology executives at WorldCom were planning to leave the company.
Heavyweight involvement
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill called Thursday for thorough prosecution of the executives responsible for the accounting irregularities at WorldCom. The SEC filed fraud charges against WorldCom on Wednesday. The Justice Department and another House committee, Energy and Commerce, opened investigations of the company's accounting practices this week.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee requested Thursday night that WorldCom turn over a detailed list of financial records to the committee by July 11, 2002.
In addition to information on WorldCom's accounting for last year and this year, the period already under scrutiny for the US$3.8 billion transfers, the committee requested details on WorldCom's accounting for swaps of communications capacity, transactions that have raised concern at companies like Global Crossing and Qwest Communications.
The collapse in value of WorldCom's stock and bonds, meanwhile, continued to reverberate among investors. State pension funds lost at least US$1.6 billion, according to preliminary estimates that still exclude large state pension systems such as those in Texas and Massachusetts.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest pension fund with nearly US$150 billion of assets, estimated that it lost US$565 million on its investments in WorldCom securities.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund said Thursday that it lost about US$300 million on WorldCom-related investments.
"As a nation, we believe in holding individuals accountable for their actions when a crime is committed, and that value must extend to corporations -- such as WorldCom -- and their executives," H. Carl Mcall, the New York state comptroller, said in a statement.
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