Bankruptcies

People who have filed for bankruptcy sometimes go to considerable lengths to hide their financial pasts. They may “accidentally” transpose digits in Social Security numbers or use middle names instead of their given names on credit histories.

Additionally, people sometimes “edit” their resumes to remove employers that went bankrupt.

But these tactics are less effective now that the legal filings in most of the nation's federal bankruptcy courts are available online, which allows us to efficiently uncover past bankruptcies in court dockets all over the country.

Of course, a bankruptcy alone isn't necessarily a deal-killer. You need to know the facts behind the filing. That's why we generally interview one or two of the filer's creditors.

Sometimes these interviews confirm that the filer is a bad bet. Other times, our investigation reveals that the filer, while under serious financial pressure, was trustworthy and responsible.