But these bills were not received and paid for several months since these costs were incurred, while accounting principles required that the company made such payment estimations that were supposed to be matched by the revenues in the income statements. Therefore, the CFO told its subordinates to release accruals that were considered too high.

The CFOs of some of the units of WorldCom refused to book such entries. Regardless of the CFOs repeated pressure, they refused to book these illegal entries. However, Sullivan managed to book his entries with the help of other managers that obtained the account number and determined subordinates to make the entry. In addition to this, some of the accounting department's employees made accrual releases without informing the senior managers.

This situation was established as a regular practice at WorldCom. The company's accountants also took part in this situation. This is because they accepted to release...
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