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The
WorldCom Case
4/27/2004 8:28:57
AM
Daily Journal
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BY GARY PERILLOUX
Daily Journal
BOONEVILLE - Out of the blue, Terry Cox received a February 2003 call
from a friend of a friend of nationally renowned criminal defense lawyer
Roy Black.
The Black connection offered him the corporate case of a lifetime: Cox
could be investigating for the defense team of Scott Sullivan, the
defrocked chief financial officer at WorldCom at the eye of an $11
billion corporate accounting scandal.
Cox readily accepted, but his selection wasn't automatic. The call came
from a National Association of Legal Investigators colleague in Miami,
where Black made it known he wanted a Mississippian investigating
Sullivan's case.
The tables were turned on Cox.
"They did a thorough investigation of me and verified my credentials
to make sure I was the person they wanted," Cox said.
Two weeks later, the journey began.
Cox would spend hundreds of hours interviewing dozens of people
nationwide in the next year.
THE EBBERS WING
In early December, he joined two of Roy Black’s associates on a mission
to the former WorldCom headquarters, now MCI satellite offices in
Clinton.
The search echoed eerily of fallen CEO Bernie Ebbers.
"We spent two days in the old executive wing of WorldCom researching
records made available to us," Cox said. "That entire area is
now vacant."
By March, Sullivan pleaded guilty to three Securities and Exchange
Commission violations, Cox said. Sullivan had struck a deal with federal
prosecutors in exchange for building a case against Ebbers.
Technically, a second case is pending against Sullivan. Oklahoma
prosecutors may line up their case with federal regulators, but until
then Cox said he's necessarily reticent about details of the Sullivan
investigation.
Along the way, he did see a very different picture of Sullivan from the
very public persona created by the WorldCom officer's opulent Boca Raton,
Fla., home-in-progress.
"We began preparing this case from Day One as if it was going to
trial, and continued until Mr. Sullivan reached an agreement with the
prosecution," Cox said.
Pretrial discovery was difficult. MCI WorldCom tried to bar Cox and
company from actually talking to existing WorldCom employees.
A Manhattan judge said “No” and
issued an Order allowing them access to any employees who would talk to
them.
For Cox, the WorldCom case gave him the opportunity of a lifetime to flex
his corporate investigation skills and reach national prominence.
" I get the opportunity to work with outstanding attorneys all the
time here in my home area, but the uniqueness of somebody from
Booneville, Miss., being involved in a case of this magnitude is amazing
and gratifying. I am very pleased to have been chosen based on my
professional skills and experience to represent Mr. Sullivan and to work
with such a nationally recognized attorney as Roy Black and his team of
legal professionals." he
said.
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi
Daily Journal, 4/2/2004, section F , page 1
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