Bye-Bye Bernie

So much for the dummy defense.

Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom, was convicted today on all nine charges brought against him. I must confess to being pretty surprised--not because I thought he was innocent, but because I sat in for part of the trial and thought the defense attorney, Reid Weingarten, did a good job of pointing out that there was little real evidence other than the sworn testimony of admitted liars like CFO Scott Sullivan. Sullivan only agreed to testify against Ebbers after he'd been convicted, presumably in hopes of getting some time knocked off his sentence. But Ebbers torpedoed himself by taking the stand and practically denying that he'd ever met Sullivan, let alone worked next door to him for many years.

This conviction is a big deal. It will have a lot more repercussions for Corporate America then Martha's demise ever did. It says that if you run a public company, you--and not your underlings, not your lawyers, not your bankers--are the one responsible for what happens. Playing the dumb lucky guy who somehow ended up in the corner office just isn't going to cut it ever again. Which means big trouble for the other know-nothings currently on trial or soon to be, such as HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy, Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski, and Qwest's Joe Nacchio, who the SEC announced charges against earlier today.

Being a CEO just ain't what it used to be. First the stock options went away. And now this!