There’s No Accounting for Big-Business Ethics

Re “WorldCom Says It Inflated Books by $3.9 Billion,” June 26: Massive accounting fraud has probably doomed telecom giant WorldCom in the same way it sank Enron, Adelphia and Global Crossing. These instances have sapped investor confidence and vaporized billions of dollars in personal investment accounts. WorldCom’s leaders better hope that the millions of share owners holding now nearly worthless stock don’t vent their anger by switching carriers.

In fact, all corporate executives who have resorted to fraudulent accounting better hope investors don’t begin to use the integrity of a company’s balance sheet as a factor in making purchase decisions.

Paul Kradin

Studio City

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Regarding Robert Scheer’s June 25 commentary: It is refreshing to find someone who has the guts to tell it like it is. Although the focus on terrorists, terrorist acts and threats is essential, we cannot allow ourselves to be diverted from the corporate boardrooms. The acts of Tyco, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Enron and now WorldCom are nothing more than terrorism in corporate America affecting more lives than anyone is willing to discuss. Bin Laden, Bernard Ebbers, Kenneth Lay, Dennis Kozlowski--they are all playing the same game. By the way, have you checked your 401(k) lately?

Tom Yeager

Diamond Bar

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The “crisis of confidence” enveloping America’s business leadership is long overdue (June 22). Anyone who has been paying attention over the last 40 years is not at all surprised by this latest chapter in the long and consistent history of corporate malfeasance.

White-collar defense lawyer Seth Taube’s analogy between making up numbers and robbing a bank misses a simple fact: rob a bank, go to prison; make up numbers, go to another company. It’s an issue of economic class.

Paul Hershfield

Venice