7. Bernard Ebbers
An oldie but a goodie: Bernard “Bernie” Ebbers helped cook a whole lot of books during his stint as the top executive at Worldcom. Never heard of Worldcom? In the 1990s, it was one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Investigation revealed an $11 billion accounting fraud, designed to manipulate the company’s image of profitability, which was primarily blamed on Ebbers. In 2005, Ebbers was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Worldcom later filed for bankruptcy, emerging from the scandal with billions in debt. It later changed its name to MCI and was bought by Microsoft.
