The federal fraud trial of former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers kicked off last week in U.S. District Court in New York, with the telecom community watching to see if the sins that resulted in the unraveling of the company will be laid at his doorstep.

On the one hand, it is possible to believe Ebbers, 64, didn't understand the accounting shenanigans behind the $11 billion fraud that resulted in WorldCom's bankruptcy in 2002. He was a former high school coach and motel owner who became a telecom tycoon thanks to a vision for growth based on acquisition.

He began by starting a small long-distance resale company called Long Distance Discount Service in 1983 and then grew it by buying other small telecom shops and bolting them on. The formula was simple: Grow the top line via acquisition and then leverage that to buy more. By some counts, he bought some 70 companies.

Ebbers graduated to the telecom major leagues in the mid-1990s with a string of deals, acquiring IDB WorldCom for its global reach in 1994, then scooping up WilTel Network Service for $2.5 billion in 1995 and merging with MFS Communications in 1996 (MFS had earlier acquired the largest national ISP, UUNET). He vaulted into second place in the majors in 1998 when he completed the $37 billion merger with MCI. (In 1999 WorldCom made a run at Sprint, but the deal was shot down on anti-trust grounds.)

At its peak in 1999, WorldCom's stock was trading in the $90s. But then the telecom market downturn started to rattle what turned out to be a house of cards.

By early 2002, Ebbers was fighting desperately to keep it all afloat. Forbes reported in February that year: "The rumors that have battered WorldCom's stock over the past week or so have 'truly been unbelievable,' Ebbers said. 'To question WorldCom's viability is utter nonsense.'"

He resigned two months later, and by June the stock was trading for less than 50 cents.

The defense will argue that through all of this Ebbers was good at deal making but bad at the business mechanics - which were all the more messy because of the rampant deal making - and he was misled by subordinates who simply wanted to keep him happy.

But that is frankly hard to believe. One would think (or hope) it would be hard to hide $11 billion, even from the most out-of-touch CEO. And it doesn't look good that the prosecution has guilty pleas from five of his reports, some of whom have agreed to testify against him.

One thing is clear: The unfolding story will be fascinating.

Whitepapers

• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Network-Wide Change Management Visibility with Route Analytics
• REMOTE CONTROL: How to Reduce the Cost, Complexity and Risk of Managing Your Distributed IT Infrastructure
• Steal This Script: Hands-On Tips for Service Impact Network Management
• The Case for an Untethered Enterprise
• Best Practices for WAN Optimization with Data Replication

View more LANS & WANS whitepapers

Webcasts

• WAN Optimization Editorial Webcast
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Tips and Techniques for Remote Data Backup and Delivery
• WAN Optimization Landscape
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage

View more LANS & WANS webcasts

Special Reports

• Network World Executive GUide: The Virtualization Equation
• Get More From Your WAN
• Learn how to Keep your Mobile Workforce Connected
• WAN Optimization: How to rev up sluggish applications
• The Wireless Explosion
• Network World Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management

View more LANS & WANS special reports