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NEW YORK (Reuters) - MCI (Other OTC:WCOEQ.PK - News) said Friday its financial restatement for 2001 and 2000 resulted in a net reduction of $74.4 billion to its previously reported pre-tax results. The restatement included revenues, expenses and earnings and the write-downs of assets and adjustments to liabilities, the bankrupt telecommunications company said. MCI, whose legal name is WorldCom, said that consolidated revenues were $37.7 billion in 2001 and $39.3 billion in 2000. It had a net loss of $15.6 billion in 2001 and $48.9 billion in 2000, including the restatement adjustments, it said in a regulatory filing.

Company Keeping Free Phone Bank Open BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Due to overwhelming demand, MCI has extended free phone calls for soldiers at the company's Baghdad International Airport phone bank until February. "The use of the phone center was extended because of soldiers e-mailing MCI to say thank you," said James S. Strom, program manager for MCI government markets in Vienna, Va. MCI originally introduced the calling center in December so soldiers would be able to phone home for the holidays. Free phone calls home during the holiday season were a part of their way of bringing comfort for the...

Every few years, economists identify another mutant variation of inflation to keep them awake at night. In the 1980's, it was stagflation. Three years ago, it was deflation. And now, meet the economic specter of the new millennium: stealth inflation. That's when phone companies and just about anybody else who sends you a bill manages to extract more money from you without actually raising their rates. Phase 1 of this program was the proliferation of miscellaneous fees -- for "regulatory assessment," "handling," "restocking," and so on. According to Business Week, newly concocted fees will generate $100 million for hotels this...

<p>The state is poised next month to extend a telecommunications contract - valued at $1 billion - that some say could saddle agencies with obsolete technology and force taxpayers to needlessly spend more than $100 million for services, according to internal state documents obtained by The Orange County Register.</p>

Watchdog Furious Over Government Contracts for “Suspended” MCI (Washington, D.C.) &#59450; Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today chastised federal agencies for granting waivers allowing MCI, formerly WorldCom, to continue to receive federal contracts, despite the fact the company was suspended by the General Services Administration (GSA) in July for lacking “the necessary internal controls and business ethics.” “This is the wrong message to send to corporate America,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “A company that committed the largest fraud in history ends up being punished on paper and not in reality. This contradictory action does not even amount to a...

<p>Still another out-of-control, dysfunctional institution recently joined the wolf pack seeking to devour MCI to advance their own narrow special interests. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson announced criminal charges last month not only against six long-gone former company executives responsible for a massive accounting fraud at the company. He announced criminal charges against the company itself as well.</p>

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Service members and their families will be "honored guests" at the Washington Capitals NHL hockey game against the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the Capitals "Salute to the Military Night," Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7 P.M. at the MCI Center. The Capitals are dedicating the evening to recognizing our nation's military and their families. The Capitals and various sponsors have partnered with Operation Tribute to Freedom (OTF) to provide more than 5,000 free tickets to service members. Service members will be able to register beginning Oct. 8, online at www.ima.army.mil website. Select the OTF icon,...

<p>MCI, formerly known as WorldCom Inc., named five new members to its board of directors Friday and said it expects to appoint three more before it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection, which it hopes to do later this year.</p>

Oklahoma Charges MCI, Ex-CEO with Fraud Wednesday August 27, 6:45 pm ET By Ben Fenwick OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The Oklahoma attorney general on Wednesday charged MCI, its former Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers and five others with violating state securities laws by knowingly giving false information to investors. These are the first criminal charges filed against Ebbers and the telephone company, which became the largest bankruptcy in history last year amid an accounting scandal that has ballooned to $11 billion. Other former executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan, were previously charged by federal prosecutors. Sullivan also was named...

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma attorney general Wednesday filed the first criminal charges against former WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard Ebbers, part of a wider complaint that also named the telecommunications company now known as MCI and other one-time top executives. The complaint accuses Ebbers, the other executives and the company of violating state securities laws by giving false information to investors in 2000. WorldCom collapsed into the nation's largest bankruptcy last year amid an accounting scandal that has grown to $11 billion. "It is rare that we name a company in a criminal complaint, but in this case it is...

The Right should not be joining the Left in the blacklisting of MCI. Candidates and groups on the left have long made attacks on corporate America a staple of their populist appeals. Whether it is Jesse Jackson shaking down corporations for minority contracts, Ralph Nader blasting big business on environmental issues, or the perennial management-labor disputes, the battle between the left and business interests remains at the forefront of American politics. What is new, however, is conservatives taking up the cause. Washington Post columnist James Glassman, former U.S. Congressman and MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough, and Citizens Against Government Waste, all...

WorldCom -- soon to be MCI -- received its blueprint for emerging from Chapter 11 today, and, boy, is it a doozy. The plan from court-appointed corporate monitor Richard Breeden contains no less than 78 "recommendations" designed to keep the company from repeating the past abuses under Bernie Ebbers that led to the most massive accounting fraud in history. Here are the highlights: A separation of the chairman and CEO positions. No stock option grants for at least five years; any thereafter must be expensed. Dividends initially targeted at 25% of net income. At least one new director to be...

August 21, 2003 -- Embattled telecom giant MCI will lay off about 2,400 workers in the next three months as the company's battle to stay alive gets tougher each day. The first round of layoffs will be announced on Aug. 29, with subsequent layoffs announced in September and October, sources familiar with the situation told The Post. Although the company declined to comment on any workforce reduction, MCI did say its restructuring continues. "As we continue to restructure our operations to better position the company going forward, including improved integration and automating certain functions, we expect to continue to add...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MCI said on Tuesday its auditor found weaknesses in the company's internal controls that could lead to additional restatements of financial results as the No. 2 U.S. long-distance telephone carrier tries to emerge from bankruptcy. In a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission , MCI, whose legal name is WorldCom Inc., also said it was withdrawing all of its previous financial forecasts. "KPMG has identified a substantial number of material weaknesses in the company's internal controls," MCI said in the filing. "Although the company has begun work to address these deficiencies, a significant amount...

And then there were two. Sprint, the third-largest long-distance phone company, may join MCI/WorldCom - in being suspended from winning federal contracts. Government investigators recommended considering that Sprint be barred from federal work for overbilling practices. The move is "unprecedented and totally without merit," Sprint said in a statement. Sprint, which gets more than $600 million annually from the U.S., agreed in June to pay $5.2 million to settle Justice Department charges it defrauded federal clients. Sprint didn't admit to wrongdoing. The General Services Administration that month initiated similar proceedings against MCI, which last week was suspended from federal contracts...

US bans WorldCom from new govt contracts Thursday July 31, 7:58 pm ET By Jeremy Pelofsky and Jessica Hall WASHINGTON/PHILADELPHIA, July 31 (Reuters) - WorldCom Inc. suffered another blow on Thursday after a U.S. agency said the bankrupt telephone company could no longer compete for new U.S. government contracts after finding it lacked proper internal controls and business ethics. The General Services Administration said it would review whether the temporary ban on WorldCom, which is embroiled in an $11 billion accounting scandal, should be extended for up to three years. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of...

WASHINGTON -- A possibly illegal cost-saving scheme by MCI is the subject of a federal investigation and could intensify questions over its contracts for work throughout the U.S. government and in Iraq, lawyers and others with the probe said Sunday. The fraud investigation involves MCI's alleged avoidance of charges it is supposed to pay local phone companies. MCI said in a statement that "access charges between local and long-distance carriers have existed for decades and are routine in the industry. As always, we take all inquiries by the U.S. attorney's office very seriously and will cooperate fully with any investigation."...

July 27, 2003 MCI Faces Federal Fraud Inquiry on Fees for Long-Distance CallsBy STEPHEN LABATON ASHINGTON, July 26 — Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation in the United States and Canada into accusations that MCI, the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, defrauded other telephone companies of at least hundreds of millions of dollars over nearly a decade, people involved in the inquiry said. The central element of MCI's scheme, people involved in the inquiry said, consisted of disguising long-distance calls as local calls to avoid paying special access tariffs to local carriers across the country. Those tariffs are the largest...

All last week, we had mean Martha Stewart splashed across the front page of newspapers and our TV’s. Her crime? Possibly lying about possibly getting inside information that could have possibly made her $200,000. This week, Washington lawmakers and the Pentagon just awarded a $45 million contract— that comes straight out of your wallet— to a company that defrauded Americans out of tens of billions of dollars.       WorldCom is the company that the Feds are paying to provide phone service to Iraq, despite the fact that this past year, they filed the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United...

A long-awaited report on the accounting fraud at WorldCom Inc. -- the largest in U.S. history -- will conclude for the first time that former Chief Executive Bernard J. Ebbers played a role in the company's effort to improperly boost revenue to meet Wall Street expectations, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The expansive report, due to be released Monday, is the product of an independent investigation commissioned by the company and led by William McLucas of the law firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering. It details how, starting in 1999, the company used accounting...