Ex-WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the biggest corporate fraud in the nation's history.
Ebbers was convicted in March of orchestrating an $11 billion accounting fraud at WorldCom that was the biggest in a wave of corporate scandals at Enron, Adelphia and other companies.
WorldCom filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2002. The company's collapse cost shareholders and employees billions of dollars in losses.
Ebbers, 63, was convicted in March of nine felonies that carried a maximum prison term of 85 years.
The stiff sentence for Ebbers amounts to the largest ever for an executive accused of committing corporate crime.
U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones ordered Ebbers to begin serving his sentence in October.
It's not yet known where he will be incarcerated, but the Bureau of Prisons has a policy of placing inmates within 500 miles of their homes, if possible.
In issuing the sentence, Judge Jones recommended a prison in Yazoo City, Miss.
Ebbers had asked for leniency, arguing that his failing health, community service and personal financial losses from WorldCom's collapse warranted a lighter sentence.
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