U.S. Fights Request by Former WorldCom Official to Move Trial
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Prosecutors asked a federal judge in Manhattan not to transfer the securities-fraud trial of Scott D. Sullivan, the former chief financial officer of WorldCom, to another location, disputing his claim that he could not afford to defend himself in New York City.
Mr. Sullivan is accused of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud that drove WorldCom, the nation's second-largest long-distance company, into filing for bankruptcy protection. Prosecutors urged the judge to deny Mr. Sullivan's request to transfer the case to Washington. An assistant United States attorney, David Anders, disputed Mr. Sullivan's claim that a Manhattan trial would impose a financial hardship.
In court papers, he cited Mr. Sullivan's $19 million pay package in 1997 and $45.3 million that he received from selling shares of WorldCom.
"Sullivan's financial means are far from modest," Mr. Anders wrote in papers that contested a request to move the trial. He is building a $15 million, five-building compound, with a movie theater and swimming pool, in Boca Raton, Fla., Mr. Anders said.
