Stardate 20020626.0531

(On Screen): Hey, what's $3.8 billion between friends? It's not all that much, is it? Just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Numbers entered into the wrong part of the spredsheet. There's a lot of difference between "expenses" and "investments". About $3.8 billion of restated-profits difference, in the case of WorldCom.

Of course, no-one can get away with that scale of fraud, right? That's what we have auditors for, to prevent that kind of stuff. Yup, with auditors like Arthur Andersen on the case (you knew that was coming, didn't you?), we can all invest our money secure in the knowledge that the companies in which we invest are honest, straight and true.