Cynthia Cooper was the whistleblower who exposed massive accounting fraud at WorldCom in 2002.

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 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 received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University and a Masters of 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).

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

References

• Colvin, G. "Wonder Women of Whistleblowing". Fortune (August 12, 2002).

Time magazine Persons of the Year | Accountants