SOX Center

The timing of the scandal helped build support for tougher rules in the 2002 bill on securities laws.

His name is not on the law, but maybe it should be. Perhaps more than either Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes or Rep. Michael G. Oxley, Bernard J. Ebbers is responsible for the far-reaching change in U.S. securities laws since the Depression.

That law has changed the face of international securities markets and greatly increased the regulation of auditors around the world.

Ebbers, 63, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for his role in the fraud that led to the bankruptcy filing of WorldCom. Ebbers founded LDDS Communications, a small long-distance company, and through acquisitions built it into a giant.

But WorldCom collapsed in fraud in early 2002, just as Congress seemed unable to agree on securities legislation that had been spurred by the Enron fraud a few months earlier. The WorldCom collapse ensured passage of a bill that was far tougher than had seemed possible only weeks before.

OC Register: WorldCom’s collapse gave boost to Sarbanes-Oxley