Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by siskiyou on Sunday June 21, 2026 @08:00PM
(#48623889)
I worked for Advanced Network and Services, which operated the NSFNET and was later acquired by America Online. Then one day the company was acquired by WorldCom. A few years later the CEO was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a ~$10 billion fraud. As a systems administrator I knew nothing about any of that, but I could tell that the new management included a lot of players and empire builders. That's the signal that told me to quit a few months after the acquisition. Employees were invited to invest their retirement savings in a mutual fund that contained only WorldCom stock. Many of them lost everything. Pay attention to those signals.
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Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by sokoloff on Sunday June 21, 2026 @08:26PM
(#48624063)
I feel like Worldcom got a modest amount of press coverage at the time but probably would have gotten a lot more if it hadn’t been front-run by the Enron scandal.
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by adastra22 on Sunday June 21, 2026 @08:52PM
(#48624252)
Why are these always one letter off from what they actually are? Worldcom-> World-con. Madoff -> Made-off
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by inigyou on Sunday June 21, 2026 @09:40PM
(#48624603)
Scam Bankrun-Fraud
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by hyperadvanced on Monday June 22, 2026 @12:22AM
(#48625644)
Normative determinism is the term for that
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by pinkmuffinere on Monday June 22, 2026 @12:43AM
(#48625772)
*Nominative Determinism. Named after John Nominative, who first proposed the effect.
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by hyperadvanced on Monday June 22, 2026 @09:46PM
(#48639125)
My phone must have autocorrected. Ty and good joke :)
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by N_Lens on Monday June 22, 2026 @01:10AM
(#48625944)
Palantir are upfront!
> Employees were invited to invest their retirement savings in a mutual fund that contained only WorldCom stock.
Investing in your own employer is an idiotic risk..... If the company goes titsup, then you lose your job and your savings. This happened to many people during the dotcom crash.
Re:Did my old job only exist because of fraud?
by siskiyou on Monday June 22, 2026 @06:28AM
(#48628281)
For decades after my WorldCom experience, I cashed out all equity grants immediately and invested the money elsewhere. Even if the company appears solid and is not run by criminals, it's still sound risk management. Bad things can happen to good companies as well.