The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "financial loss" ...
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Dark Markets
The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of financial markets in 2012 performed a rare and extraordinary service: It exposed evidence of hidden manipulation by corporate executives and professional traders that the markets’ official government watchdogs were utterly unaware of. Reflecting potential widespread harm to millions of ordinary investors, federal prosecutors and securities regulators raced to follow the Journal stories with major investigations. A team of reporters spent six months creating a database examining how more than 20,000 corporate executives traded their own companies’ stocks over the course of eight years. What the team found was disturbing: More than 1,000 executives had generated big profits, or avoided big losses, by trading their company stock in the days ahead of corporate news announcements that led to big moves in the shares. The Journal also exposed a regulatory loophole that had helped the executives take advantage of inside knowledge ahead of other investors. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and the Securities and Exchange Commission all launched investigations the day the Journal article appeared.
Tags: Financial markets; corporate executives; stocks; Federal Bureau of Investigation
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Fiesta Bowl Losses
This series focused on how schools are negatively impacted financially by attending bowl games, which is contrary to the public perception that schools profit by going to these games. It was discovered that UConn lost $1.8 million dollars after playing in a BCS Bowl Game in 2011.
Tags: Fiesta Bowl; BCS; Connecticut; Bowl Game
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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Risky Business
The investigation revealed “how a school district’s use of risky “swaps” - derivatives that are bets on interest rate swings - caused huge losses and higher taxes for the district”. These “swaps”, given by financial advisors and investment banks, brought in millions of fees for them and left the school district in debt. Further, the school and adviser failed to terminate two swaps, which cost taxpayers millions more.
Tags: Bethlehem Area School District; education; tax system; finances; board; administration; Stanley J Majewski; Joseph Lewis
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The Financial Collapse
Among the findings in this package are: In February, Morgenson warned that the arcane contracts known as credit-default swaps were so volatile and explosive that they would "set off a chain reaction of losses at financial institutions." In May, she examined the moves by private investment firms to buy up hundreds of New York apartment buildings, betting that they could evict tenants and raise rents. In July, she reported on the enormous increase in consumer debt and the changes in the lending system that encouraged risky loans. In September, she dissected the small London Investment unit that had bedazzled the insurance giant AIG with its profits but soon brought it to its knees and helped trigger a widespread collapse. In November, she profiled the reckless executives who gambled on subprime home mortgages and led Merrill Lynch to its demise. In December, she held the credit-rating agencies to sharp account, in particular Moody's, showing how they had minimized or overlooked the dangers to investors.
Tags: AIG; credit-default swaps; Wall Street; Merill Lynch; Federal Reserve; columnists
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Financial package
"Hedge funds in swaps face peril with rising junk bond defaults" examined the complexity of credit default swaps, which are unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. "FDIC may need $150 billion bailout as local bank failures mount" reported that many regional banks in the country would fail within a year because they hadn't realized losses on defaulting mortgages. "Exploiting FDIC loopholes enriches former U.S. bank regulators" revealed that three former government employees created a for-profit company that exploits FDIC rules and helps millionaires insure up to $50 million in bank accounts guaranteed by the FDIC.
Tags: economy; finance; recession; bank; bond; FDIC; mortgage; bailout
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Way Ahead of the Curve
This is a series of three stories by senior writer David Evans that ran in the February, July and November issues of Bloomberg Markets magazine. In "The Risk Nightmare," (July 2008), Evans pierced the opacity and complexity of credit default swaps, unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. He found that CDS had built up so many interconnections that one player could jeopardize the entire financial system. In "Banks on the Edge" (November 2008), Evans reported that scores of regional banks across the U.S. would fail within a year because they hadn't yet realized their losses on defaulting mortgages. In "Peddling Tainted Debt to Florida," (February 2008), he reported that Lehman Brothers was both advising and selling toxic debt to Florida's "money market pool." This disclosure prompted a run on the pool, and it was then shut down as the state investigated its holding and worked to restore its creditworthiness.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Bear Stearns; Florida; Charlie Crist; bank collapse; Wells Fargo; Washington Mutual; bailout
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An Army of Debt
"An Army of Debt" focuses on the effects that extended deployment has on the families of many National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers. The investigation found a number of families suffering from financial problems and bankruptcy due to a loss of income when soldiers were activated. The investigation also discovered that "deceptive lenders prey on members of the military and can exacerbate the problem by encouraging risky credit and by exploiting and exaggerating the threat of military punishment for financial hardships."
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Collision course
This story deals with the unfairness of the factors determining auto insurance rates. Specifically, New Jersey drivers "pay more on average for auto insurance than in any other state." In general, drivers from urban areas pay more than those from rural areas and, although there is a logic to it, "consumer advocates in several states argue that the higher number of losses in urban areas cannot possibly account for the huge difference in rates." Besides, some insurance companies avoid getting inner-city clients by not having offices in such areas. Legislation passed in New Jersey in 1997 partially fixed the problem and the number of insured cars went up 12 percent in two years. The story also refers to a program the state of California designed to counteract the unfairness.
Tags: insurance agents; urban drivers; New Jersey; Consumer Federation of America; Public Advocates; Texas Department of Insurance; Nationwide Financial Corp.; Automobile Urban Enterprise Zones; Los Angeles County; San Francisco County; California Insurance Department
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Merry-Go-Round: Ernst & Young advised the client, but not about everything. It didn't reveal business ties alleged to pose conflict with its consulting job.
Story explains how retailer Merry-Go-Round got into financial trouble, and was then led astray by Ernst & Young. According to the story, "...months went by as they (Ernst & Young) conducted studies, produced financial projections and developed a cost-saving proposal. Far from proposing immediate store closings, Ernst & Young recommended stocking up stores with a wide-ranging variety of fashions in hopes a sales pickup in the next season's back-to-school shopping. It didn't work. The crisis grew worse."
Tags: Ernst & Young; Ernst and Young; accounting; Merry-Go-Round; Merry Go Round; retail; stores; clothing stores; teenage clothing; bankruptcy; law; lawyers; consultants; money; financial loss