WorldCom's Ebbers may be forced into bankruptcy

NEWS Ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers may be forced to file for personal bankruptcy protection as his former employer grapples with its own financial tangle. Ebbers borrowed $408m from the company to finance, among other things, the purchase of a timber operation in Canada. Under the original terms of the loan, he had five years to pay the money back. But as WorldCom is itself in Chapter 11, its creditors may demand accelerated repayment, according to this morning's Wall Street Journal. But Ebbers' fortune includes 10 million WorldCom shares, which are now practically worthless, and several assets which aren't very liquid, including the timber operation, a Canadian ranch and a soybean farm. That will make it difficult for him to repay the loan, and may force him into personal bankruptcy. If that happens, he may lose his $1.5m annual pension payment WorldCom agreed to pay him for the rest of his life under the terms he agreed with the company when he departed. He may of course lose the money anyway, should WorldCom fail to extricte itself from the quagmire it currently finds itself in.