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American Morning
Minding Your Business: A Slap on the WorldCom Wrist
Aired November 27, 2002 - 09:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: WorldCom deep in scandal. Bernie Ebbers up to his gray eyebrows in unpaid loans he was given by the company. $400 million worth or something. Could the company get away without paying a nickel's worth of fines? Andy Serwer is "Minding Our Business," and if that's true, that means the moon is made of green cheese and there ain't no gravity.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: In this country, anything is possible, especially when big business is concerned, especially over the past couple of year. It's sad but true, Jack.
It looks like there's a preliminary settlement between WorldCom and the SEC, whereby WorldCom is not going to pay any fine. It's hard to believe.
CAFFERTY: Who on the prosecutorial side would agree to such a thing?
SERWER: It's hard. We're still getting a read on this thing, and it is a preliminary agreement. Here's the WorldCom settlement. Neither admits nor denies allegations. Hello! Will not violate securities laws anymore. Oh, that's good. Will educate and train. We like that.
Listen to this, $9 billion of fraud they perpetrated, responsible for the evaporation of $175 billion worth of stockholders' wealth. It's like Bart Simpson writing on a chalk board 100 times, "I will not violate securities laws." That's what they are getting here. I just don't understand it, and the SEC, I think, has a lot of explaining to do.
CAFFERTY: We have a lot of men and women wearing the uniform overseas protecting our freedom. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What's the top brass doing to feed the troops?
SERWER: Yesterday, we talked about some of those rations that Bill Hemmer is so fond of.
(CROSSTALK).
SERWER: Not bad at all.
But it turns out, though, that the Pentagon is actually sending out a bunch of turkeys and a bunch of stuff.
CAFFERTY: You're not talking about the congressional... SERWER: Here we go, 201,000 pounds of turkey. There's the audio. That is not Bill Hemmer gobbling, 16, 000 cans and there are 67,000 pies going over there to Afghanistan and other places. And I love that deep-frying turkey apparatus.
CAFFERTY: And our prayers go right along with the meals. We'll be back after this.
Thanks, Andy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 27, 2002 - 09:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: WorldCom deep in scandal. Bernie Ebbers up to his gray eyebrows in unpaid loans he was given by the company. $400 million worth or something. Could the company get away without paying a nickel's worth of fines? Andy Serwer is "Minding Our Business," and if that's true, that means the moon is made of green cheese and there ain't no gravity.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: In this country, anything is possible, especially when big business is concerned, especially over the past couple of year. It's sad but true, Jack.
It looks like there's a preliminary settlement between WorldCom and the SEC, whereby WorldCom is not going to pay any fine. It's hard to believe.
CAFFERTY: Who on the prosecutorial side would agree to such a thing?
SERWER: It's hard. We're still getting a read on this thing, and it is a preliminary agreement. Here's the WorldCom settlement. Neither admits nor denies allegations. Hello! Will not violate securities laws anymore. Oh, that's good. Will educate and train. We like that.
Listen to this, $9 billion of fraud they perpetrated, responsible for the evaporation of $175 billion worth of stockholders' wealth. It's like Bart Simpson writing on a chalk board 100 times, "I will not violate securities laws." That's what they are getting here. I just don't understand it, and the SEC, I think, has a lot of explaining to do.
CAFFERTY: We have a lot of men and women wearing the uniform overseas protecting our freedom. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What's the top brass doing to feed the troops?
SERWER: Yesterday, we talked about some of those rations that Bill Hemmer is so fond of.
(CROSSTALK).
SERWER: Not bad at all.
But it turns out, though, that the Pentagon is actually sending out a bunch of turkeys and a bunch of stuff.
CAFFERTY: You're not talking about the congressional... SERWER: Here we go, 201,000 pounds of turkey. There's the audio. That is not Bill Hemmer gobbling, 16, 000 cans and there are 67,000 pies going over there to Afghanistan and other places. And I love that deep-frying turkey apparatus.
CAFFERTY: And our prayers go right along with the meals. We'll be back after this.
Thanks, Andy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
