Posted on 07/25/2002 4:18:09 PM PDT by arete
An eight-bedroom mansion going up as WorldCom founders has come to symbolize the '90s ''infectious greed.''
[AP photo] Scott Sullivan's house under construction in Boca Raton will have 16,410 square feet of air-conditioned space, and 7,100 square feet of other areas.
BOCA RATON -- Even in a neighborhood of $2.5-million homes, the eight-bedroom mansion under construction at 6006 Le Lac Road raises the bar with its commanding profile along the edge of a lake. Keeping up with the Sullivans, it appears, will take some doing.
The new home of Scott D. Sullivan, the ousted chief financial officer of WorldCom, will have nine refrigerators, four microwave ovens, three washer-dryer sets, six Jacuzzis and spacious, separate live-in quarters for two maids, according to Palm Beach County construction permit records.
There will be two garages, each with space for three cars, plus a motor court with plenty of turn-around space for Sullivan's two Land Rover SUVs. The bathtub in the master suite will be 6 feet wide and 8 feet long, enough room to float on one's back. Next to that will be his and hers showers, his and hers toilets, his and hers walk-in closets the size of living rooms.
The master bedroom, 34 feet from the door to the sitting area window, is long enough for a game of catch. The grand hall at the home's entrance soars up 35 feet.
Straight ahead is the grand staircase with 28 steps to a mezzanine. Underneath is the wine cellar -- not to be confused with the wine room just off the dining room. There, the view through the French casement windows will be of a reflecting pond and a sculpted lion with water pouring from its mouth.
From end to end, there will be 117 windows and 87 doors.
There is more -- much more -- in this soon-to-be-finished home, which in recent weeks has become an emblem of the "infectious greed" that, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, has sapped perspective and proportionality from the nation's corporate boardrooms.
An aerial photo of the home was splashed across two pages in a recent issue of Newsweek. Other national publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times and USA Today, have mentioned the home in their grim accounts of WorldCom's breathtakingly steep slide. ABC News was scrambling to get a look at the permitting plans last week.
Sullivan, 40, was fired last month after WorldCom understated its expenses by $3.9-billion over the last five quarters. Once known as a financial Wunderkind who in his 30s helped take WorldCom from an also-ran to the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, he now is seen as a culprit who helped lead the company to bankruptcy. WorldCom filed Sunday for Chapter 11 protection. He takes his place in a growing lineup of high-flying executives accused in a wave of alleged corporate malfeasance that has eliminated jobs by the thousands, decimated retirement nest eggs and rattled the stock market to its core.
Away from all the wreckage, the final stages of construction are under way on Sullivan's home, which is situated in the private Boca Raton community of Le Lac, a neighborhood that abuts the manicured fields at the Royal Palm Polo Club.
In a voice mail message left at his current abode, a modest-by-comparison $170,000 home in Boca Raton, Sullivan was asked last week to answer the charge that his mansion is the product of corporate greed. He did not call back.
"I find it hard to believe this guy knowingly did something wrong. He seemed so nice and genuine," Le Lac board member Al London told the Palm Beach Post recently, saying he had met several times with Sullivan and his wife, Carla.
"I hope all turns out well and he'll be our neighbor," London said.
The mansion, of course, was conceived in better times -- the days of "irrational exuberance," as Greenspan called them. The 1990s.
It was September 1998 -- a heady time -- when the Sullivans spent $2.5-million for 4.3 acres of property along the lake that is Le Lac's centerpiece.
Earlier that summer, WorldCom had purchased MCI for $37-billion. Its stock price had hovered for months around $50 a share and would end the year at $71 a share, far from the dollar-a-share levels WorldCom suffered just before Sullivan's firing last month.
In 1998, the WorldCom board awarded Sullivan a $2-million bonus on top of his $500,000 salary.
In 1999, he would earn $600,000 in salary plus another bonus of $2.76-million.<
In 2000, with WorldCom's stock price steadily falling, Sullivan's salary would rise to $700,000 and his bonus would be $10-million. Construction on the Boca Raton mansion began early that year.
Meanwhile, WorldCom stock options awarded in addition to salary and bonuses gave Sullivan and other company executives millions more in potential wealth.
A WorldCom spokeswoman declined to explain why Sullivan lived in Boca Raton while serving a company based in Clinton, Miss. As a Florida resident, he could take advantage of the state's bankruptcy laws, which help shield assets if they are in the form of a residence.
Whatever his financial situation now, though, he was clearly feeling bullish as plans for his new home took shape.
Aside from the master bedroom suite and the grand entry hall, the home's other features include a library with two adjoining galleries, a theater with 6-inch-thick acoustical walls, a game room, a breakfast area with a 14-foot-high ceiling, a massive kitchen and a domed structure that will serve as an exercise room.
The style is mostly Mediterranean Revival with a barrel tile roof, arched windows, tile medallions, balconies, terraces, ornamental ironwork, concrete planters and an entrance that features four 20-foot-high Corinthian columns and two sculpted lions.
The $63,000 pool includes a spa, a small footbridge, a pavilion with a wet bar and a barbecue area with another wet bar.
The two-story, $75,000 boathouse stands in contrast to a neighbor's modest waterfront gazebo. It has a covered dock on the first floor with an office and living space above.
Plans on file with the county call for a guest house with two bedrooms, lounges and terraces, but construction has not yet begun on that feature.
The main home will have 16,410 square feet of air-conditioned space, not including 7,100 square feet of terraces, walkways, balconies and other areas.
The plans put the price of the home at $3-million, but published reports have estimated its value at about $15-million.
In a county that is home to some of the nation's most stunning residential property, Sullivan's presence has barely caused a ripple. Palm Beach County's total property value is more than that of 40 other Florida counties combined, and some of its oceanfront estates make Sullivan's lakeside mansion seem less impressive.
The Sullivan name is far better known at WorldCom headquarters in Mississippi, where company officials have filed a lawsuit demanding that he return his $10-million bonus from 2000.
According to the lawsuit, Sullivan accepted the bonus under the condition that he remain with the company until September 2002.
He reportedly tried to stay at least until then.
In May, when another company official uncovered questionable accounting practices and began an audit, Sullivan implored her to hold off until the third quarter of this year.
Now, the company says, it was Sullivan's "acts of serious misconduct," not WorldCom, that brought about his departure. When the company fired him and asked for its bonus back, Sullivan refused, according to the lawsuit.
Now, it insists, the man who once was rewarded for his contribution to the company has been "unjustly enriched.
Personally, I'd like to see him floating face down.
Richard W.
Richard W.
Hey, I resent that! 8^)
What a dinky overpriced shack.
I need more room than that for my 7 tractors, let alone grain trucks, combines, and equipment.
I figure even a city slicker aught to know better than to live next to a frog pond. Skeeters will eat'em alive.
Yes, but I understand that it is a much better class of mosquito.
Richard W.
Thanks for the ping.
Excuse me, it's about justice not capitalism.
Richard W.
Richard W.
On the contrary, confidence produces a surfeit of mercy, a dearth of justice. Disappointment, skepticism, and fear, as reflected by falling stock prices, leads to the pursuit of justice.
Exactly what I said.
Let's let the system work and have him be tried for fraud.
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