The US government has charged Bernie Ebbers, former chief executive of WorldCom, with securities fraud stemming from the $11 billion accounting scandal that sent the phone company into bankruptcy.
The indictment followed a guilty plea earlier in the day by ex-WorldCom finance chief Scott Sullivan, a key Ebbers lieutenant who admitted to conspiring to falsifying the company's accounts.
Sullivan is expected to be a key witness in the government's case against Ebbers, who the government says demanded that WorldCom's financial results meet Wall Street's expectations demand.
WorldCom's collapse marked the biggest ever US bankruptcy, and Ebbers is the biggest figure to date to face prosecution in the wave of scandals that roiled the US corporate world following the stock market boom.
Ebbers' indictment comes on the heels of government charges brought last month against Jeff Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, which also fell into bankruptcy in a massive bookkeeping scandal.
Ebbers was charged with conspiracy, fraud and making false statements, according to court documents. He will be arraigned tomorrow.
WorldCom, which has since changed its name to MCI, last summer agreed plan to pay a record $750m to settle fraud charges in its historic accounting scandal.
WorldCom epitomized the telecommunications and Internet euphoria of the 1990s, using a booming stock price to fuel an acquisition spree.
