Question :
1. What are the pressures that lead managers and executives to "cook the books"?
2. What is the boundary between earnings management or earnings smoothing and fraudulent reporting?
3. Why were the purposed actions taken by WorldCom managers not detected earlier? What systems or processes should be in place to prevent or detect rapidly the kinds of actions that occurred in WorldCom?
4. Were the board of directors and external auditors blameworthy in this case? Why or why not?
5. Betty Vinson: villain or victim? Should criminal fraud charges have been brought to her? How could employees react when ordered by their employer to do something they do not believe in or feel uncomfortable doing?