Cynthia Cooper (accountant)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cynthia F. Cooper (born July, 1964 to Gene Ferrell and the former Patsy Lee) is an internal auditor and consultant best known for being the whistleblower who exposed massive accounting fraud at WorldCom in 2002.[1][2][3]

A native of Clinton, Mississippi, Cooper worked as the Vice President of Internal Audit at WorldCom. After conducting a thorough investigation in secret, she informed the audit committee of WorldCom's board that the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through phony bookkeeping. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history.

Cooper previously worked for the Atlanta offices of public accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche. She earned her Bachelor of Science in accounting from Mississippi State University and a Master of Science in Accountancy from the University of Alabama. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Georgia, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).[2]

Cooper was named one of three "People of the Year" by Time magazine in 2002.[4]

She maintains an office in Brandon, Mississippi. She married Lance Cooper in 1993; they have two children Stephanie, and Anna Katherine.[2][1]

Contents

[edit] Public speaker and author

Cooper has transformed her experience with WorldCom into a career as a public speaker and author. Ms. Cooper is associated with the Nationwide Speakers Bureau, Inc. and receives up to $25,000 dollars per appearance.[5] Cooper's book about her life and the WorldCom fraud, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower,[6] was published in 2008.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Ripley, Amanda. "The Night Detective", Time, 2002-12-30. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. "There really is a corporate-governance revolution across the country. Internal-audit departments are going to be taken more seriously..." 
  2. ^ a b c (2008) Cynthia F. Cooper, Marquis Who's Who, Reproduced in Biography Resource Center (fee), Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. 
  3. ^ Cooper, Cynthia. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., p. 13. ISBN 978-0-470-12429. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. 
  4. ^ LACAYO, RICHARD; AMANDA RIPLEY. "Persons Of The Year", Time, 2002-12-30. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. "There have been times that I could not stop crying." 
  5. ^ [http://www.nationwidespeakers.com/speaker/97/cynthia-cooper/worldcom-whistle-blower CYNTHIA COOPER WORLDCOM WHISTLE BLOWER]. Retrieved on May 02, 2008.
  6. ^ Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower. Retrieved on May 02, 2008.

[edit] References

  • Cooper, Cynthia Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower (2008) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-12429-1
  • Cynthia Cooper: WorldCom. Public Concern at Work (PCaW) - Whistleblowers. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. “The California public employees' retirement system, the largest state pension fund in the United States, lost $580 million it had invested in WorldCom.” (Some facts don't match other sources.)

[edit] External Links

"Cynthia Cooper chronicles her experience during the rise and fall of WorldCom in her book 'Extraordinary Circumstances.'" Speech given at Army & Navy Club in Washington DC later shown on BookSpan.


United States  This biographical article about a United States activist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about an American businessperson born in the 1960s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v • d • e
Time Persons of the Year

Rudolph Giuliani (2001) · The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper / Coleen Rowley / Sherron Watkins (2002) · The American Soldier (2003) · George W. Bush (2004) · The Good Samaritans: Bono / Bill Gates / Melinda Gates (2005) · You (2006) · Vladimir Putin (2007)
Complete roster · 1927–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present