Cay: Gone in 60 seconds

After being selected by Cable & Wireless in January 2004 to upgrade its network in the Cayman Islands, a deal worth about $17 million, tattered Nortel Networks Corp imploded last week.

According to a report by the Toronto Globe and Mail, a simmering accounting scandal at Nortel boiled over last Wednesday, wounding the Canadian high-tech sector as the country’s flagship international player abruptly sacked three top executives, including the CEO, Frank Dunn.

The latest scandal has turned the already blemished one-time high-technology star into the country’s poster child for accounting shenanigans, lax regulation and corporate greed.

The CEO at one major Canadian brokerage house said: “This is a major embarrassment for Canada. We look like amateurs when it comes to running a business.”