WorldCom execs earned $104m in salaries amid accounting fraud

WorldCom Inc executives earned $104m (€107m) in salaries, bonuses, and share sales even as the bankrupt telecoms group was using questionable accounting techniques to inflate its earnings by billions of dollars, the Financial Times reported in its online edition, without citing sources.

The payments, half of which were in the form of profits on the sale of share options in 1999, have renewed relevance after WorldCom revealed a further $3.3bn (€3.4bn) in improper accounting stretching back as early as 1999.