Trail of Failed Companies

We dig behind the job titles and dates that typically outline an executive's past service at a company to uncover what actually happened to the business while he was in charge.

Was it sanctioned by regulators? Sued by competitors? Investigated by the Justice Department? Forced into bankruptcy?

Fact-gathering such as identifying and contacting former colleagues and reading the transcripts of Wall Street analyst conference calls can provide insights into potential business troubles during the executive's tenure.

Together with regulatory filings, litigation records and news reports, these take us beneath the resume to illuminate how an executive actually ran his company.

Among the problems we've found:

• A CEO's past company was accused in a suit by the Justice Department of keeping two sets of books to deceive federal regulators.
• A CFO's former company was slapped by federal regulators for selectively disclosing results to favored analysts before announcing them to the public.
• A director served on the audit committee of a company that was later sued by the SEC for overly aggressive accounting.
• A major investor sat on the board of a company that was investigated by the Justice Department's antitrust division and later pleaded guilty to price-fixing.