Ebbers Can Quiz CFO on Fidelity
Lawyers for former WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard J. Ebbers will be allowed to question the star prosecution witness about marital infidelity, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The decision was a boost for the defense, which will try to raise questions about the credibility and character of the witness, former WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott D. Sullivan.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in New York said the line of questioning was permissible because it spoke to “Mr. Sullivan’s character for truthfulness.”
The ruling came one day before questionnaires were to be handed out to potential jurors in the trial of Ebbers, who is accused of orchestrating an $11-billion accounting fraud at WorldCom, which now operates as MCI Inc.
In a second victory for Ebbers, the judge blocked the government from introducing evidence about conversations between Ebbers and Sullivan as they watched congressional hearings into the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp.
Prosecutor David Anders said the conversations proved Ebbers knew accounting tricks at WorldCom were “criminal, as opposed to just something accountants do, just innocent stuff.”
But Erik Kitchen, a lawyer for Ebbers, said it meant nothing that Ebbers watched the Enron hearings.
“The accounting activities at Enron are completely different than those involved in this case,” he said.
Jones also blocked the government from asking some other WorldCom executives who had pleaded guilty in the case about Enron-related conversations, ruling that the Enron testimony could prejudice the jury against Ebbers.
Ebbers, 63, faces charges of fraud, conspiracy and making false filings to federal regulators. The charges carry a penalty of up to 85 years in federal prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jurors will be interviewed one by one starting Monday, and opening statements could begin by the middle of next week.
The judge also upheld her previous ruling refusing to grant immunity to Ronald Beaumont, WorldCom’s former chief operating officer, and another former company executive.
The defense wants both to testify because it claims those executives were much more closely involved with accounting details and yet did not know about irregularities that were being ordered by Sullivan.
The judge also turned down a request from Ebbers’ lawyers to block the government from calling as witnesses a Wall Street analyst and an investor who lost money when the WorldCom accounting scandal broke in 2002.
WorldCom filed for Chapter 11 protection that summer, the largest bankruptcy in the history of American business.
Ebbers sat for the hearing Tuesday in a blazer, slacks and necktie. He smiled and shook hands with reporters but did not take questions.
