WorldCom was an American telecommunications company based out of Ashburn, Virginia. In $2002,$ just a year after the Enron scandal, it was discovered that WorldCom had inflated its assets by almost $$11$ billion, making it by far one of the largest accounting scandals ever. The company had underreported line costs by capitalizing instead of expensing them and had inflated its revenues by making false entries. The scandal first came to light when the company$$s internal audit department found almost $$3\mathrm{.}8$ billion in fraudulent accounts. The company$$s CEO, Bernie Ebbers, was sentenced to $25$ years in prison for fraud, conspiracy, and filing false documents. The scandal resulted in over $30,000$ job losses and over $$180$ billion in losses by investors.

$1.$Describe the fraud and the people involved.

$2.$As a forensic accountant$/$investigator$,$ how would you examine and collect the evidence to determine if there is financial statement fraud?

$3.$Is it true that "white collar" crime doesn't "hurt" anyone? How does fraud impact?