[1] In December 2019, Ebbers was released from Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth, due to declining health, having served 13 years of his 25-year sentence, and he died just over a month later.

[2][3] Dubbed the "Telecom Cowboy," Ebbers often wore boots and blue jeans instead of the typical corporate uniform of a suit and tie.

An injury before his senior season prevented him from playing his final year and he was instead assigned to coach the junior varsity team.

[8] In 1983, following a meeting at a coffee shop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Murray Waldron wrote a business plan for selling low-cost, long-distance phone service on a napkin.

Ebbers and a group of investors raised $650,000 to form Long Distance Discount Services, Inc.[9] In 1985, he was named chief executive officer.

[12][13] In July 2000, it abandoned its planned $115 billion acquisition of Sprint Corporation after U.S. and European Union antitrust regulators raised objections.

[27] The indictment charged that he violated securities laws by defrauding investors on multiple occasions between January 2001 and March 2002.

[34][35] Ebbers served in the low-security portion of the complex, which typically houses non-violent offenders and is built like a school dormitory.

The parties agreed that Ebbers and his codefendants would distribute over $6.13 billion, plus interest, to over 830,000 individuals and institutions that had held stocks and bonds in WorldCom at the time of its collapse.

Ebbers agreed to relinquish almost all of his assets, including a home in Mississippi, and his interests in a lumber company, a marina, a golf course, a hotel, and thousands of acres of forested real estate.

[44] In July 2001, Ebbers was proposed by George W. Bush as the chair for the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

As a high-profile member of the congregation, Ebbers regularly taught Sunday school and attended the morning church service with his family.

"[8][46] Ebbers died at his home in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on February 2, 2020, at the age of 78, just over a month after being granted compassionate release from prison due to his ill health.

His lawyers said that he was, by the time of his death, legally blind and suffering from dementia, anemia and significant weight loss.