Follow the paper trail
Series
Connected files that trace one story through testimony, messages, filings, and the people who made the decisions.
The Reckoning
13 files- 9m
"I Will Take That as a, No"
Weeks after the three largest bank failures since 2008, the men who ran Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic sat at the same table and were asked, one at a time, whether any of it was their fault.
- 9mFree
"I Will Take That as a 'No' Then"
Wells Fargo's CEO came to the Senate Banking Committee to say he was accountable for two million fake accounts. Elizabeth Warren asked him to name one thing he had done about it.
- 8m
"I Am Not a Cat"
Three weeks after Robinhood switched off the buy button on GameStop, the app's CEO, the head of Citadel, the hedge fund manager on the wrong side of the trade, and the retail investor who started it all answered questions from the same committee.
- 6m
"Hundred Percent Agree"
McKinsey advised the FDA on opioid regulation while advising opioid makers on selling more. Its global managing partner spent a House Oversight hearing agreeing that would be improper, and explaining why it was not what happened.
- 3mFree
"That's Quite the Word Salad"
Johnson & Johnson moved its talc liabilities into a new subsidiary and put that subsidiary into Chapter 11, freezing the lawsuits against a company that was never bankrupt. Its litigation chief came to the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain.
- 6mFree
"You Control the Venue"
Live Nation's president told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices, does not set service fees, and has lost market share since the merger. The artist manager sitting beside him disagreed about the fees, and the chairman wanted to talk about who owns the buildings.
- 3mFree
"This Is How Much You Owe. This Is How Much You Have Returned, Zero"
A year after Timothy Sloan resigned, Wells Fargo's third chief executive since the scandal came to the same committee. Katie Porter brought a chart showing what the bank owed auto loan customers and what it had paid back.
- 4m
"I Am Not Sure What to Make of That Answer"
After a door plug blew off a 737 Max in flight, the FAA capped Boeing's production. The Senate Commerce Committee wanted to know what the regulator was actually measuring, and when the cap would lift.
- 5mFree
"So What Happened?"
Equifax lost the personal data of roughly 145 million Americans because one patch was never applied. Its former chief executive spent a House Financial Services hearing explaining which two things went wrong.
- 5mFree
"Is It Safe to Fly in a Boeing 737 MAX 9?"
The FAA had taken over signing the airworthiness certificate on every Boeing aircraft, a job normally delegated to Boeing itself. A House member asked the question his constituents were asking.
- 3m
"Much, Much Better to Prevent It"
After Silicon Valley Bank failed, a House oversight subcommittee asked what its supervisors at the San Francisco Federal Reserve had seen, and why seeing it had not been enough.
- 4m
"I Know All About the Fund. You Don't Have to Tell Me About That."
The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department why the Sackler family faced no criminal charges, and where a $315 million corporate penalty actually went. Both questions were asked more than once.
- 4mFree
"Are You Lying to a Federal Judge or Are You Lying to Me?"
Three years after the fake accounts scandal, Wells Fargo's next chief executive came to the House Financial Services Committee to say trust had been restored. A freshman member had read what his lawyers were telling a federal court about the same statements.