WorldCom Pension Loss Suit Settlement Reached

June 15, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Former WorldCom executives have hammered out a deal to settle part of an employee lawsuit filed over the billions of dollars in lost retirement fund occurring when the company collapsed.

USDistrict Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan disclosed the tentative accord Monday in an order that did not reveal any terms, Bloomberg reported.

The employees sued WorldCom, now known as MCI, as well as former CEO Bernard Ebbers and others to recover billions of dollars that their 401k pension accounts lost by investing in company stock. The litigation claimed WorldCom caused employees to keep company stock in their 401k accounts while knowing the company was overstating income.

Former WorldCom chairman Bert Roberts and former vice-chairman John Sidgmore, and officials who administered the employee benefit plan, are among those defendants settling.

WorldCom in 2002 filed for the largest bankruptcy in US history after an $11 billion accounting scandal left the company in tatters.

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