Buford Yates said in federal court that he was instructed by supervisors to misreport expenses.

Yates, 46, served as WorldCom's director of general accounting. Prosecutors say he carried out orders by chief financial officer Scott Sullivan to hide $3.8 billion in expenses to make the telecommunications giant appear profitable.

Yates told U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck in Manhattan that he knew the wrong information would be reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission and relayed to the public. Peck said he would recommend that a federal judge accept the plea.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 9. Yates faces 10 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and a $1 million fine.

Yates, of Brandon, Miss. was the second executive at the company to plead guilty in the case.

David Myers, WorldCom's ex-controller, pleaded guilty in September to securities fraud, saying he was instructed by senior management to falsify ledgers.

Two other accounting executives who worked directly under Yates are expected to plead guilty as part of cooperation deals with authorities, according to court papers.

Prosecutors say the executives, Betty Vinson and Troy Normand, carried out orders from Sullivan and Myers to hide the $3.8 billion in operating expenses as capital expenses.

"Sullivan, Yates, and their co-conspirators were able to assure that WorldCom's reported earnings exceeded its actual earnings for the period from October 2000 through April 2002 by approximately $5 billion," the indictment said.

"As Sullivan, Myers, Yates, Vinson, and Normand well knew, there was no justification in fact or under generally accepted accounting principles for these entries," it said.

Since the accounting mess first came to light, WorldCom officials have said roughly $7 billion was misreported, and reports have pinned the final figure as high as $9 billion.