WorldCom board members agree to $20.25 million settlement

[UpInArms]

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=3099351

NEW YORK Eleven former board members of WorldCom agree to pay 20-and-a-quarter (M) million dollars to settle a lawsuit by former investors.

The deal came after a federal judge's preliminary approval of another plan for J-P-Morgan Chase to pay two (B) billion dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by former WorldCom investors.The settlement with the 11 board members must be approved by a judge at a hearing expected next week.

...a bit more...

related:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/business/19worldcom.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1111244506-Kix5yMm6moYwYjBa8wDjRw&oref=login

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

excerpt:

Under the terms of the settlement, which was reached early yesterday evening, 11 former WorldCom directors will pay $20 million out of their own pockets to settle with Alan G. Hevesi, comptroller of New York and trustee of the state's Common Retirement Fund. Mr. Hevesi is lead plaintiff in the civil suit representing hundreds of thousands of investors who held WorldCom stock and bonds in the years immediately before its bankruptcy filing in 2002.

If the settlement is approved by the court, it will bring to $6.057 billion the total amount recovered from defendants by Mr. Hevesi in the case.

<snip>

Also, Carl J. Aycock, an early investor in WorldCom; Max E. Bobbitt Jr., a private investor who was also chief executive of Metromedia China; Francesco Galesi, a real estate developer; Stiles A. Kellett Jr., a private investor who led WorldCom's executive compensation committee; Gordon S. Macklin, a former president of NASD; John A. Porter, a private investor who has filed for personal bankruptcy in Florida; and Lawrence C. Tucker, a partner at Brown Brothers Harriman.

<snip>

The amounts being paid will differ for each director. The precise amounts for each director were not disclosed, but the payments will account for roughly 20 percent of the directors' aggregate net worth, not counting their primary residences and retirement accounts.

...more...

:nopity:

[papau]

1. Steal a half billion - settle for $20 million - seems fair

:-(

[bullimiami]

2. Same story over and over. If youre rich you can buy your way out of it.

And you still have plenty of cash to live a lifestyle few can afford.
And you still have the friends and connections to hook you right back up.

Its a dirty rigged game.

[vpigrad]

3. They should be put in jail...

for hiring a gym teacher that knew nothing about finance or business to be their CEO. The guy had no clue what he was doing, and he admitted it freely.

[leveymg]

4. Why else would they make him the front man? Shrub and Reagan likewise.

It's the "plausible deniability" strategy. We're supposed to believe they were too dumb to plan such disasterous outcomes, so it must have been a mistake. BCCI, Iran-Contra, WorldCom, Iraq -- they all follow the same pattern.

The Repubs use it over and over again to get away with their crimes. Corporate America is following suit as it loots the carcasses of the United States Treasury and the Middle Class - again, and again, and . . .

[spanone]

5. A Paltry sum considering the amount stolen. Facism abounds.

[leveymg]

6. Fascism is Organized Crime with a Clean Shirt. n/t

[TroglodyteScholar]

7. Ho-ly SHIT

If there were any questions about whether justice was dead, I think this answers them......