Oklahoma made quite a splash and created serious potential problems for federal prosecutors in the SDNY when it jumped into the WorldCom case with its own criminal case filed under the Oklahoma Securities Act. Among those problems, discussed here in detail, was the possibility of damaged witnesses, i.e., the possibility of Oklahoma bringing common witnesses to testify before its own grand jury and at hearings and trial in advance of the federal trials. After failing to coordinate its case with the SDNY (Oklahoma's AG Drew Edmonson reportedly wrote to the SDNY prior to taking action but never received a response), the AP reports that Edmonson ultimately did make an agreement with U.S. Attorney James Comey of the SDNY not to call any witnesses in Oklahoma's case against Ebbers until those witnesses had testified in former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan's federal trial scheduled for February 1, 2004.

According to the AP article, this agreement was put to the test this week when an Oklahoma judge refused to postpone the preliminary hearing in Ebbers' case, now scheduled for December 1, 2003, until after the Sullivan trial. To honor his agreement, Edmonson was forced to drop his case against Ebbers, although he vowed to refile the charges next year prior to the limitations deadline of March 31, 2004.

The AP reported on November 13, 2003 that the same Oklahoma judge also rejected requests of attorneys for both sides to reschedule Mr. Sullivan preliminary hearing in Oklahoma. This hearing is set for Jan. 26-28, the week before Sullivan's federal trial. Thus, the same issue of common witnesses needing to testify in Oklahoma prior to the federal trial lurks in the Sullivan case, too.