Even with a ballsy guy like Wilkie helping him, Pavlo had more problems than he could handle and no legitimate ways to fix them. MCI had bowed a bit to reality in April, 1996 by adding $48.6 million to its bad debt allowance.1 The move reduced the company’s reported earnings by an equal amount. But it was still a far cry from the $100 million or so Pavlo had figured was lurking on its books.
