Securities Newsroom

Mr. Ebbers Charged Having To Do With The Overall Monetary Value Of The Securities Fraud

NEW YORK - Reading consequence into notes from a jury room is always an inexact science, if only because it's impossible to know whether a particular note came from one juror or 12. Despite the uncertainty, the future for Bernard Ebbers looks a lot brighter today than it did two days ago, as the jury in his fraud and conspiracy trial ended its sixth day of deliberations without a verdict.

Indeed, the jury may not even be close to finishing its work, as just this morning it asked for a "flip chart," or poster board and markers, apparently so it could diagram the charges.

More favorable for Ebbers, the former billionaire CEO of WorldCom, was the fact that the jury also asked for the direct testimony and cross-examination of Cynthia Cooper. While Cooper was an internal auditor for WorldCom--and the whistle-blower who first exposed the accounting fraud--at the trial she was a witness for the defense. Sources close to the defense say their calling her was meant as a powerful signal that Ebbers was on the side of those who didn't know about the fraud as it occurred.

Cooper also testified that Ebbers actually interceded on her behalf when Sullivan tried to block an internal audit at the company. But perhaps the strongest point she made was on cross-examination. Prosecutor William Johnson asked whether the fraud she found was fairly simple. Cooper said no, "it was a spider web of transactions." She also said the internal auditors found nothing that directly implicated Ebbers in the scheme.

Two days ago, the notes seemed dark for the defendant. The jury asked whether it needed to find him guilty of two "supplemental charges" tacked onto the end of the indictment. The answer from U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones was no--the supplemental charges, having to do with the overall monetary value of the fraud, were irrelevant to the case. But if the jury had gotten that far, they must have found Ebbers guilty of the primary charges--or so it seemed at the time.

As it happened, the jury did not immediately return with a verdict that day, worked all day Thursday and returned today. Yesterday, the jury asked for information relating to the first quarter of 2002, the final count.

But it was apparently still not close, as the jury said it would quit its deliberations at 1 P.M. and return early Monday. It also asked for all the WorldCom press releases that are in evidence. The press releases could be neutral, but they also show that WorldCom did issue earnings warnings even as it was cooking the books to make earnings appear better.

Throughout the process, there has been no statement or sign that the jury is deadlocked or even fighting, even as it heads for its seventh day of deliberation