Before they filed for bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was the fourth-largest investment back in the United States. However, due to their involvement in mortgage origination, the company plummeted hard during the mortgage crisis of 2008. This infographic looks at the 20 largest bankruptcies in American history, including some noteworthy bankruptcies of 2017 and 2018.
Aside from Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy of $691 Billion in 2008, the other companies that round out the top five are Washington Mutual ($327.9 Billion), WorldCom ($103.9 Billion), General Motors ($82.2 Billion), and CIT Group ($71 Billion).
Every company has a story with these bankruptcies. With WorldCom's, for example, it was the third-largest bankruptcy, which happens on July 2nd, 2002, and was triggered by a $4 Billion accounting scandal. Auditors had found that there were fraudulent accounting methods being used as a way to cover up the decreasing stock prices that WorldCom was facing at the time.
infographic by: www.titlemax.com
