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Ebbers' big mistake? He didn't break the law 20 years ago.(Full story)
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NEW YORK (CNN) -
Former WorldCom accountant Betty Vinson was sentenced Friday morning to five months in prison and five months house arrest for her part in WorldCom's $11 billion accounting fraud.
Vinson, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. She testified at the trial of former WorldCom Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers, describing bogus accounting designed to help the company meet its profit expectations.
On July 13, Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the biggest corporate fraud in the nation's history.
Vinson was the first of five former WorldCom officials -- who all cooperated with prosecutors probing financial wrongdoing at the company -- who face sentencing over the next week.
Another former accountant at WorldCom, Troy Norman, will be sentenced Friday afternoon for his part in the accounting fraud at the communications company.
Vinson's attorney asked Manhattan federal judge Barbara Jones for probation rather than jail time.
But the judge said it was necessary to impose some prison time, although Jones said she was handing down a reduced sentence because Vinson's cooperation with prosecutors "played a very significant role in the unraveling of the fraud."
Vinson faced a possible maximum prison term of as much as 14 years, but had been widely expected to receive a lighter sentence because she cooperated with prosecutors.
Ebbers, 63, was convicted in March of overseeing the $11 billion accounting fraud at WorldCom -- the biggest in a wave of corporate book-cooking that included scandals at Enron, Adelphia and other companies.
WorldCom filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2002.
-- From CNN Business News Producer Leora Kapelus
-- Reuters contributed to this report
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