The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said today that it filed a civil fraud action against Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom Inc., for his role in the WorldCom fraud. The SEC action comes on the same day Ebbers received a 25 year prison sentence for orchestrating the fraud.

Ebbers agreed to settle the matter by consenting, without admitting or denying the allegations in the commission’s complaint, to the entry of a final judgment enjoining him from violating federal securities laws, and permanently banning him from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The settlement is subject to the approval of the court.

The SEC says that the action against Ebbers is its sixth civil enforcement action related to the WorldCom fraud. The complaint filed today alleges that Ebbers, along with other WorldCom senior officers, caused numerous fraudulent entries in WorldCom’s books as part of a scheme to make its publicly reported financial results appear to meet Wall Street’s expectations. The complaint also alleges that these market expectations were sometimes based on targets set by Ebbers that he knew could not be attained by legitimate means; and, it alleged that Ebbers made numerous false and misleading public statements about WorldCom’s financial condition.