Jury Selection Starts in Ebbers’ Trial
A federal judge questioned about 50 potential jurors Monday, as the accounting fraud trial of WorldCom Inc. co-founder Bernard J. Ebbers got underway.
Prosecutors claim that Ebbers, 63, helped mastermind an $11-billion fraud to boost revenue and cut costs artificially at the second-largest U.S. long-distance company from 2000 to 2002 to prop up its share price.
“This is a criminal case with one defendant: Bernard Ebbers,” U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones told a New York courtroom filled with about 200 potential jurors Monday. “It is the government’s burden of proof to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Ebbers is charged with one count each of securities fraud and conspiracy and seven counts of making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. As questioning of the potential jurors progressed, Ebbers sat silently at the defense table while his wife, Kristie, watched from behind him.
Lawyers and Jones will select a jury of 12 today, with several alternates, U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Megan Gaffney said. Opening arguments may begin this afternoon, she said. Jurors completed a questionnaire with five queries last week.
They got a second questionnaire Monday, with 54 questions, in an effort to determine whether they can be impartial and can sit for a trial that is expected to last for as long as eight weeks. Two potential jurors were excluded because they owned stock in WorldCom or currently own shares in MCI Inc., the name under which WorldCom has operated since emerging from Bankruptcy Court protection.
Potential jurors were asked whether they had been influenced by recent news of accounting fraud, whether they had invested in the stock market, whether they believed the government should not regulate the securities industry and whether they were biased against witnesses who had broken the law and were now aiding prosecutors.
“I instruct you that the use of such accomplice witnesses is perfectly legal,” Jones said.
Jones also wanted to know whether relatives of panel members had ever been criminally charged. Potential jurors answered at sidebar conferences with the lawyers and judge.
Prosecutors will rely on testimony from ex-Chief Financial Officer Scott D. Sullivan, who has pleaded guilty, to prove that Ebbers was part of the fraud. Defense lawyers say Sullivan kept Ebbers in the dark about accounting matters and is lying to win leniency from prosecutors.
After the judge eliminates potential jurors who are biased or say they cannot sit for the trial, the defense will be allowed to toss 10 potential jurors off the panel, and the prosecution six. Those who remain will be selected for the jury.
The prosecution of Ebbers is the result of a three-year investigation into the accounting scandal that led to the company’s huge bankruptcy filing in 2002.
The company lost $184.6 billion in value between its high on June 18, 1999, and July 21, 2002, when it filed for bankruptcy. WorldCom began restating earnings after Ebbers resigned as chief executive in April 2002.
