Financial Officer

The accounting scandal enveloping WorldCom Inc. grew out of a scheme so simple and brazen that top executives for the telecom giant should have known it would eventually collapse of its own weight, experts in corporate finance said yesterday. But the pressure to meet Wall Street's earnings expectations, coupled with a culture of permissiveness among internal and external auditors, may have fed a misguided belief that the improper shifting of $3.8 billion in expenses could be covered long enough for the company to revitalize its slumping earnings.

THE DAYS SEEM numbered for a big brick house at the northeast corner of Charles and 33rd streets that has been owned by Johns Hopkins University for many years. It sits on the site of a planned new bookstore and has, I presume, outlived its economic usefulness. It's a house of huge proportions, the kind of place built in the era of President William Howard Taft, when North Charles Street was home to the kind of mansions you'd find today in Laurelford or along the Falls Road corridor in Baltimore County.

COUDERSPORT, Pa. - There's no corporate sign - in fact, there's no sign at all - outside the boxy brown-brick building at 1 N. Main St. in this isolated borough near the New York state border. There's really no need. "We all know it's Adelphia," explained Sallie Hershey, who can see the cable giant's three-story headquarters from the front window of her furniture store. Signs or no, the tie is unmistakable between Adelphia Communications - a Fortune 500 company that is the country's sixth-largest cable operator - and the town of 3,000 that is its improbable home.

Frederick W. Arscott, an Ellicott City financial executive with interests that ranged from flying to sports cars and photography, died Thursday in a traffic accident. He was 47. Mr. Arscott was killed when a 12-ton roll of steel fell from a flatbed truck and struck his car while he was driving to his job at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, where he was chief financial officer. He was married to Carol Arscott, co-president of an Annapolis polling firm and a longtime Republican Party activist.

Sue S. McWilliams, retired chief financial officer of Maxalea Nurseries Inc., died Friday of breast cancer at her Idlewylde home. She was 62. Mrs. McWilliams, who had battled breast cancer for seven years, lived at Sumac, her home on the grounds of the 20-acre Idlewylde nursery established by her in-laws, James and Marion McWilliams, in 1929. Because sumac was a prolific plant on their property, she and her husband named their home after the plant, as well as their 43-foot, cream-colored trawler in which they enjoyed sailing.

Henry J. Raymond, a longtime budget and fiscal administrator in city government, is expected to become the Baltimore school system's chief financial officer Oct. 8. Baltimore's school board was set to approve Raymond for the post last night, but terrorist attacks in New York and Washington led school board officials to cancel the meeting. Raymond was chief financial officer for the school system from 1995 until 1997, when he was hired as the city's deputy budget director. Raymond, 44, is budget chief for the City of Baltimore, a position he has held for 17 months, since being promoted from the deputy's job. In his new position, Raymond will be one of the top four school officials, in charge of an $859 million annual school budget, as well as the business and financial management of the 96,000-student system.

Antex Biologics Inc. said yesterday that it had raised $3 million through a securities sale to help pay for development of its experimental vaccines and antibiotics. The private placement of convertible preferred stock and warrants comes as the small Gaithersburg company is poised to move its fourth vaccine into human testing. It also comes on the heels of a number of executive changes designed to help the company focus on getting its vaccines to market, rather than on research, said V.M. Esposito, the company's chairman and chief executive.

New positions Braniff is named CFO of Cedar North America Cedar Inc., a global consulting, applications and outsourcing firm with headquarters in Baltimore and London, named Edward Braniff chief financial officer of Cedar North America responsible for all financial, information technology and legal operations. He was formerly chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Global TeleExchange. A resident of Bethesda, he is a law graduate of Seton Hall University and he also holds an M.B.A.

HOUSTON - Compaq Computer Corp., the biggest personal-computer maker, said it will fire 5,000 employees - 7 percent of its work force - and will cut its earnings estimate for the first quarter, noting weakness in the economy. Earnings will be 12 cents to 14 cents a share for the quarter, the company said. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 19 cents. Compaq also said Jeff Clarke will become chief financial officer, replacing Jesse J. Greene Jr. Analysts were expecting Compaq to cut its forecast.

Allfirst Financial Inc. said yesterday that it has named an official of its Irish parent company as its executive vice president and chief financial officer. Maurice Crowley, the head of group investor relations at Allied Irish Banks PLC in Dublin, will be responsible for all financial areas of the Baltimore company, including taxes, planning and cost management. He will be a member of Allfirst Financial's executive finance committee. Crowley also will head strategic planning and provide support in devising strategy to Frank P. Bramble, Allfirst Financial's chairman and chief executive officer of Allied Irish Banks' U.S. division.