A jury has convicted former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers of all charges relating to the largest fraud in U.S. corporate history – an $11-billion US accounting scandal that led to the collapse of the company he'd spent 20 years building into an industry giant.

Edmonton-born Ebbers was convicted Tuesday on one count of securities fraud, one of conspiracy and seven counts of making false filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bernard Ebbers former CEO of WorldCom enters Manhattan federal court, Tuesday. (AP photo)
Bernard Ebbers former CEO of WorldCom enters Manhattan federal court, Tuesday. (AP photo)

Deliberations by the seven-woman, five-man jury lasted eight days before the verdict came down.

Ebbers will be sentenced June 13. He faces up to 85 years in prison.

After the jury's decision was announced, Ebbers left the courthouse and hailed a cab without speaking to reporters.

"I didn't think that Mr. Ebbers ever acted with criminal intent," Ebbers' defence lawyer Reid Weingarten told reporters following the verdict.

Built WorldCom into communications giant

Ebbers, 63, launched a long-distance company in Mississippi in 1983 and built the business into a telecommunications giant through numerous acquisitions.

However, he resigned as the company's CEO in April 2002, just two months before the company disclosed that it had inflated profits for more than a year by improperly accounting for more than $3.9 billion US.

Accounting sleight of hand made WorldCom's revenue and earnings appear larger than they actually were. The following month, the corporation filed for bankruptcy.

By the time the investigations were done, authorities said WorldCom shareholders had been the victims of the largest accounting fraud in U.S. history.

Ebbers said he didn't know of fraud

During the six-week trial Ebbers' defence team blamed former CFO Scott Sullivan for the massive fraud at the company, saying Sullivan was a "scheming, book-cooking crook."

In his closing argument, Weingarten painted a picture of Ebbers as a CEO who trusted Sullivan and was unaware of the accounting problems at the company.

But prosecutor William Johnson told jurors that Ebbers ordered subordinates to cover up expenses and inflate earnings because he was worried about repaying about $400 million US in personal loans that were backed by WorldCom stock.

Johnson said despite Ebbers's denials, he was the only person with the authority to orchestrate the scheme.

"He was WorldCom and WorldCom was Ebbers," he said. "He built this company. He ran it. Of course he directed this fraud."

Ebbers took the stand in his own defence and testified he only learned about the $11 billion US fraud after he resigned from WorldCom in April 2002.

Ebbers laid the blame for the cooked books on Sullivan, who has already pleaded guilty to three criminal charges and was the prosecution's star witness against Ebbers.

"He's never told me he made an entry that wasn't right," Ebbers said. "If he had, we wouldn't be here today."

Sullivan told the court that Ebbers pressured him into falsifying earnings and expense numbers, despite his repeated protests that it was wrong.

Ebbers also still faces civil litigation, including from the company, which backed up his $400 million US in personal loans after Bank of America demanded more collateral as WorldCom's stock price plummeted.