On this day in 2002, telco Worldcom filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest accounting fraud of its era. The fallout contributed to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulation.

Worldcom wasn't your typical Dot-Com company. They weren't some hot tech startup. They rode the Dot-Com tech wave in part because they provided infrastructure services like networking and internet access.

Along the way they tweaked their balance sheet to reflect a picture far rosier than reality. But reality eventually caught up to them – in part, thanks to an internal audit team.

(To give an idea of just how big the Worldcom fraud was, it unseated Enron from the top spot. Enron. Let that sink in.)

Why would the anniversary of a massive, fraud-driven collapse that took place during an overheated tech market feel especially relevant these days? Not a clue. Not at all.

But for anyone planning an investment or acquisition of an AI-based company: if you need extra eyes on that due diligence round, reach out…