Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower: Cynthia Cooper
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In Cooper’s thorough and efficient narrative about the fantastic collapse of telecommunications giant WorldCom there are two distinct themes: her insider’s view of the corporation’s widespread wrongdoing and the life experiences that led Cooper to becoming a courageous whistleblower. Cooper, former vice president of WorldCom’s internal audit department, is most successful with the former. She brings us into the boardrooms, the backrooms and, somehow, into the heads of key players as some struggled with and others embraced the deceptions that would bring WorldCom down. Less engaging are Cooper’s autobiographical anecdotes, which offer everything from her high school math scores to clichéd advice from Mom and Dad (”when you are unkind, you can’t go back and change the hurt”). Other unnecessary personal details-like the fact that 12-year-old Cooper called her violin teachers first when she was moving away-and mundane meanderings about haircuts and gender differences take the reader off course. Too, many of these folksy anecdotes paint the author as a goody two-shoes. Cooper is better and trumps other WorldCom accounts with a perspective available only from a business-smart insider with a conscience.
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Review
“…provides insight into an incredible corporate saga contrasting the influence of greed and moral weakness with principle behavior. It is an inspirational story of courage and character under immense pressure. (Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, July/August 2008)
“What Cooper experienced could be every internal auditor’s nightmare - uncovering a scandal of such great proportions that an auditor’s reputation, job security, and even personal safety is jeopardized. In my opinion, this book is a must-read not only for internal auditors, but also for anyone in the business environment. Cooper’s account of a scandal that shook the business world is an eye-opener and helps explain today’s regulatory and corporate environments.” (FSA Times, July 2008)
“…offers a detailed, intimate, and fascinating account of the WorldCom debacle in Extraordinary Circumstances. While most readers already know the outcome of the story, Cooper’s book is an absorbing and even suspenseful read.” (BizEd Magazine, May/June 2008)
“Ms. Cooper tells a compelling story that most of us can relate to regarding how internal audit is sometimes viewed within organizations when confronting difficult ethical dilemmas. I had a difficult time putting it down.” (Auditnet.org, May 2008)
“Extraordinary Circumstances details the struggle to get management to take internal audit seriously. The story of the investigation comes to life through Cynthia’s words. I found myself drawn into the story. Congratulations, Cynthia, on a successful first book. And many thanks for being willing to stand up to the truth and fight to expose the WorldCom fraud.” (bloggingstocks.com, 4/3/08)
“Cooper’s story is personal and interesting…it’s a cautionary tale for corporate executives. The book is an interesting story of how Cooper ended up as a major player in a very important business story.” (TexaxLawyer.com, 3/31/08)
“Extraordinary Circumstances is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of an accounting fraud. It tells the story of how that fraud was uncovered and of the ugly manipulation and deceit she encountered along the way.” (Bloomberg.com, 2/28/08)
“…blow-by-blow detail is what makes Cooper’s “Extraordinary Circumstances” well worth reading. Cooper’s willingness to reveal her innermost thoughts as she dug makes for gripping reading.” (BusinessWeek, February 25, 2008)
“…with the publication of her new book, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of A Corporate Whistleblower, we finally get an inside account of what really happened at WorldCom. It’s a powerful tale. Cooper’s story has been partially told before, most notably in the Wall Street Journal and in a report prepared for WorldCom’s board of directors. But her adventures at WorldCom come to life in this first-person account.” (USA Today, February 15, 2008)
“Readers of Cooper’s book, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower, will find it easy to identify with both the employees who manipulated the telecommunications giant’s financial statements and those who caught them.” (Reuters.com, February 7, 2008)
“…it’s a fascinating study of the quantum changes in character that accompany the accumulation of unimaginable wealth as well as an uncomfortable reminder of how, faced with an ethical fork in the road, just how easy it is for some to take a wrong turn.” (WebCPA.com, February 2008)
“This is a heroic, often exciting tale of a person who, in the course of doing her job, stumbles on a big lie and pushes on to get to the bottom of it.” (CFO.com; 1/25/08)
“This is a heroic, often exciting tale of a person who, in the course of doing her job, stumbles on a big lie and pushes on to get to the bottom of it.” (CFO.com; 1/25/08)