A learning objective for this chapter is to distinguish between capital expenditures and revenue expenditures (a revenue expenditure is an operating expense). A capital expenditure is charged to an asset account rather than to an expense account. The largest instance of fraudulent financial reporting in U.S. history was largely due to improper capitalization of operating expenditures. WorldCom Inc. (WorldCom) from as early as 1999 through the first quarter of 2002 overstated its reported income by approximately $11 billion, including approximately $7 billion of ordinary operating expenses that were improperly capitalized. The revelation of the fraud led to WorldCom’s filing for protection from its creditors under the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Although the fraud atEnron had prompted congressional interest in auditing, financial reporting, and corporate governance, by the spring of 2002 congressional efforts to draft a law in response to the Enron fraud had stalled due to disagreements between the two houses of Congress. The fraud at WorldCom broke this congressional logjam and resulted in the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act less than two months after the revelation of the WorldCom fraud.