NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Bernard Ebbers, the former head of WorldCom, has been given more time to prepare a defense against charges he engineered the largest U.S. accounting fraud.
The former Canadian faces charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and making false regulatory filings in WorldCom's $11 billion accounting debacle, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. His company filed for bankruptcy protection a few weeks after disclosing the accounting fraud in 2002. WorldCom, which completed bankruptcy proceedings this year, is now called MCI Inc.
A federal judge in New York moved Ebbers' trial date from Nov. 9 to Jan. 17 so his lawyers could have more time to prepare his defense.
In a related action, the judge denied Ebbers's request to move the trial to his home state of Mississippi where WorldCom's headquarters once were. MCI is based in Virginia.
