Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Ebbers, the former WorldCom Inc. chairman imprisoned for accounting fraud, joined the growing ranks of disgraced executives and government officials asking President George W. Bush for clemency before he leaves office.

Ebbers, 67, submitted a request to have his 25-year sentence commuted and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney is reviewing it, spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.

A former milkman, Ebbers built a small Mississippi phone company into the second-largest U.S. long-distance provider. He lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid in March 2007 to overturn his 2005 conviction for leading an $11 billion fraud, one of the largest in U.S. history.

“If what Bush has done so far is any indication, I think it’s extremely unlikely” that Ebbers’s request will be granted, said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Reid Weingarten, a lawyer who has represented Ebbers, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

The Justice Department also is considering a clemency request from Conrad Black, the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman and British Lord serving a 6 and 1/2-year sentence for fraud and obstruction. Michael Milken, the former junk-bond trader who served two years in prison in the early 1990s for violating securities laws, is seeking a pardon.

Enron, Tyco

The department hasn’t received clemency requests from Jeffrey Skilling or Andrew Fastow, both former executives of Enron Corp. now serving federal prison sentences for fraud, Sweeney said. Former Tyco International Ltd. CEO Dennis Kozlowski, whose conviction for stealing tens of millions of dollars from his company was upheld by New York’s highest court in October, was convicted on state charges and isn’t subject to a federal pardon.

The U.S. Constitution allows a president to shorten sentences or grant official statements of forgiveness for federal crimes known as pardons without approval of Congress. President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich and 175 other people on his last day in office in 2001.

Bush, with 47 days left in office, has so far pardoned just 171 people and commuted the sentences of another eight over his two terms, including I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney convicted of obstructing justice.

More than 3,000 convicted U.S. felons are seeking pardons or commutations of their sentences from Bush, according to P.S. Ruckman Jr., a professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois. These include former congressman Randy Cunningham; former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards and former Olympic sprinter Marion Jones.

Milken’s Chances

Of the business people on the list, Milken might have the best chance at a pardon, Ruckman said in an interview.

“He’s been out for a while, and has a long list of good deeds to show on his application,” Ruckman said, adding that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made a similar showing in his successful bid for a pardon on an obstruction of justice conviction, which President Ronald Reagan granted in 1989.

Ruckman said the economic slowdown doesn’t necessarily hurt Milken’s chances.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a good time for a pardon” in a white-collar crime case, he said.

Ebbers is serving his time at a low-security prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, and is scheduled to be released on July 4, 2028, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cary O’Reilly in Washington at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 4, 2008 17:58 EST