Former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating a record $11 billion fraud that toppled the telecommunications company he founded.
Judge Barbara S Jones of Federal District Court in Manhattan handed down the sentence on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Jones denied Ebbers' request for a new trial.
The 63-year-old Ebbers was found guilty of inflating the company's earnings and hiding WorldCom expenses to fool investors and lenders in 2000. Some 20,000 employees lost their jobs and $600 million in pensions were eliminated.
