Case 18: Qwest Communications International (2002)

• Prof. Dr. Klaus Henselmann
• Dr. Stefan Hofmann

Denver, Colorado-based Qwest Communications International Inc. probably was the most aggressive of a coterie of companies (including Enron and Global Crossing) that employed creative accounting strategies for swaps of communications capacity. These swaps, many of which were designed in conjunction with the independent auditors, allowed the companies to convince investors that their business prospects were not deteriorating, despite a rapid erosion of prices for their core product, fiber optic capacity. When they swapped capacity, the communications companies booked the value of the outgoing capacity as revenue, and the value of the incoming capacity as an investment. Doing so had the effect of inflating revenues, making it seem as if the communications markets were far more robust than they actually were. However, compared with most of the other participants in the swap deals, Qwest Communications International pushed the bookkeeping boundaries even further: instead of accounting for revenue from these deals over the life of the contracts, Qwest accounted for much of it upfront, producing revenue immediately rather than rateably.

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