Last I checked if you go to jail for accounting fraud in the billions of dollars where you were directly responsible for the loss of thousands of jobs and the destruction of some of the best telecom and tech brands, you should stay there and serve out your sentence. The mere fact that Ebbers is asking for a pardon by Bush before he leaves office and one is being considered should be disgusting to anyone involved in tech and telecom that plays by the rules.

Not only did Ebbers wreak havoc on the lives of thousands as he rolled up telecom companies and laid people off… Customers saw service levels decrease during the transition and in the end, fraud killed the company and made the entire telecom industry toxic to investors for many months.

Even worse, Ebber’s fraudulent accounting practices forced competitors like AT&T to waste billions as it changed strategy to compete with Worldcom more effectively. The problem is – the Worldcom books were cooked. Remember AT&T acquired cable companies and then sold them off – this was partially in response to Wall Street who wanted AT&T to be more like Worldcom.

If people who steal $1,000 can serve their sentences, this man who committed billion dollar crimes should as well. He should be too embarrassed to even ask to be let out of jail early. He is a major disgrace to our profession.

My biggest fear is he will be let out and get a talk show where he earns millions. The whole process makes me sick and should make you get out the barf bag as well.

Thankfully I am about to board a flight soon and if the flight attendant allows it, I may take an extra bag with me for later.