The board loaned him $400 million. It was not his money.

WorldCom's CEO borrowed against his own stock. Then the company started covering his margin calls.

Theranos Was Worth $9 Billion. The Machine Never Worked.

$945 million raised on a device that could not do what it promised.

$600 billion. Gone in a weekend.

Dick Fuld said it was safe. He was wrong. Here is what the filing actually looked like from inside the building.

He told employees to buy. He was selling.

Ken Lay knew exactly what was inside the books. His employees didn't.

He raised $32 billion. None of it was real.

Sam Bankman-Fried built the world's most trusted crypto exchange. Then spent eight billion dollars of customer money on bad trades and beach houses.

They moved the brand to the Cayman Islands. Then filed for bankruptcy.

J.Crew owed $1.7 billion in debt. Before the filing, private equity moved the brand offshore. The creditors got what was left.

Blockbuster had 9,000 stores. One phone call ended everything.

Netflix offered to sell itself for $50 million. Blockbuster laughed them out of the room. What happened next took fifteen years.

They moved the money before the company died. The courts came for it anyway.

Fraudulent conveyance is the legal mechanism that lets bankruptcy courts reach back in time and claw assets back. Here is how it works—and how executives get caught.

He bought $130 million of stock. Then sold it all. Then it went to zero.

Ryan Cohen took a large position in Bed Bath & Beyond. Pumped it. Sold everything in two days. Eighteen months later the stock was worthless.

Sears went bankrupt. Its CEO bought the real estate.

Eddie Lampert ran Sears into the ground. Then he bought the buildings through a company he controlled. The creditors got what was left.

How distressed debt funds take over a dying company without paying a dollar.

This is the playbook. Loan to own. Here's exactly how it works.

The stock went up 1,400%. The company was bankrupt.

Hertz filed for bankruptcy owing $19 billion.Then retail investors made it a meme stock.This is what actually happened.

They loaded it with $5 billion in debt. Then walked away rich.

KKR and Bain didn't kill Toys R Us. They just made sure someone else would pay for it.

WeWork was worth $47 billion. Then somebody read the financials.

The biggest startup collapse in history. Here's who saw it coming.

18 restaurant chains. One criminal CEO. Here's who got rich.

The creditors didn't get paid back. They became the owners.

Saks Fifth Avenue had everything. Then one deal killed it all.

157 years old. Gone in 13 months. Here's who saw it coming.

THE ANATOMY OF A COLLAPSE

5 BOOKS EVERY DISTRESSED-ASSET HUNTER SHOULD READ