Convicted money launderer warns students not to
follow same path Mark Mizell
/ Reporter
Walt Pavlo delivered his lecture, “Analysis of a
White-Collar Crime,” on Sept. 6 and 7 in the LaRose
Digital Theater inside the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business
Center.
Pavlo described the events that led to his imprisonment for
wire fraud and money laundering.
Pavlo used his personal mistakes to warn students about the
importance of honesty and making good choices in the business
world.
As a former MCI executive, he managed to defraud customers
out of millions of dollars. Regretful of his crimes, he told
students not to fall into the same trap that he fell
into.
“Cheating prohibits you from finding out who you
are,” Pavlo said. “Don’t cheat yourself.
Use these four years to find out what you’re good at
and pursue that.”
He began working for MCI in 1992 in the finance department
in Atlanta.
Four years later he, along with his partner and an associate
outside the company, became involved in a fraud operation.
The scheme looked to customers like an opportunity to get rid
of a large debt, but Pavlo managed to funnel $6 million into
an account in the Cayman Islands.
Pavlo and his associates hid the losses on the
company’s books. These losses came from high risk
customers who failed to pay their bills on time. He adjusted
various accounting practices to “make the books look
good.”
He ended up quitting his job at MCI, hoping the scandal
would blow over. However, he received a letter informing him
that he was the subject of a grand jury investigation. He
suffered a nervous breakdown and experienced a period of
paranoia. Pavlo pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 41 months
in a federal prison in South Carolina.
Though he served his time, he said that the punishment
continues.
Pavlo expressed his remorse, but said he took full
responsibility for his actions.
“I’m not here to make excuses, because there
really are none,” he said.
The message of Pavlo’s speech was important for
students to hear. Some students who will be entering the work
environment may soon face some of the temptations that Pavlo
faced.
“I was really impressed by how easily [Pavlo] was
caught up in his bad decisions,” said senior Clayton
Collins, a finance major. “I think it’s something
that happens more often than people may realize.”
Pavlo stressed the importance of making good
decisions.
“Those who have been convicted of white-collar
crime…they aren’t evil,” Pavlo said.
“They’ve simply made bad decisions.”
Contact Mark Mizell at pendulum@elon.edu or
278-7247. | 
