Get ready to hear about the most scandalous retail pharmacy chain of all time that was Phar-Mor. We hear about companies and financial misconduct frequently–stories of cooked books and misappropriated funds are hardly rare, but often leave us questioning–how do companies manage to pull these off, and more importantly how do they get past trained professionals, auditors and investors? In this episode, our featured guest Professor Kelly Richmond Pope of DePaul University, a forensic accounting expert with a specialty in corporate crime, will explain how an accident exposed a $1 billion fraud and took down one of the nation’s largest retail chains. Listen now to Episode 48 on The Great Fail.

Carrian Group was a tale straight out of a John Grisham novel, running the gamut of corruption, human greed, fraudulent accounting and false profits spanning across countries.

Almost four decades since the collapse of this huge conglomerate, we still don’t know the full story—but what we do know is behind this catastrophic failure stood some very fascinating characters: the prime minister of Malaysia, a charismatic CEO, government officials and high-level executives.

This wide-ranging group all aligned to create a labyrinth of business dealings that would blow up into a high-profile investigation, the murder of an auditor and a mysterious drowning, eventually ending up as one of the largest bankruptcies in Hong Kong history.

Find out how it went down on Episode 46 of The Great Fail.

Who doesn’t remember Kmart? At its height, Kmart was the second-largest retailer in the United States, operating 2,400 stores with 350,000 employees.

The company was generating around $37 billion a year in sales, ranking 2nd to Sears. But by 1990, it would see a tectonic shift, with its fortunes beginning to change.

Find out how a series of missteps and poor management would bring down an American staple that had ruled retail for over 100 years.

Find out how it went down on Episode 47 of The Great Fail.

Many regarded Jawbone as one of the pioneers in wearables. After making its mark as a Bluetooth headset maker, it pivoted to capitalize on the new and highly desirable fitness tracking market. This pivot and expansion into a hot new area allowed Jawbone to attract funding from top-tier Silicon Valley venture capital firms and helped them amass a world-class board that included Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer and Warner Music Group’s COO Robert Wiesenthal. With all the funding in the place and the right team behind it, it seemed like Jawbone would be unstoppable. So how did a groundbreaking industry pioneer find itself entangled in corporate espionage, public embarrassment, and a string of unhappy customers? Get the full story on Episode 45 of The Great Fail.

In September 2021, Sean Gotcher, a Nevada-based real-estate agent, released an infamous TikTok video that ignited a tremendous amount of attention and criticism after alluding to a real estate iBuyer that may have been fixing home prices and engaging in market manipulation. Although many claimed this to be outrageous speculation, it would be a few weeks later when Zillow announced that it was shutting down its home-flipping business, Zillow Offers, after losing $381 million. Did Gotcher’s video accelerate the collapse of Zillow’s iBuying division? Find out how it went down in Episode 44 of The Great Fail.

Since the 1930s, Ayds was a popular appetite suppressant touted by Hollywood celebrities and starlets. Despite being a success and household name for over 40 years, Ayds would find itself at the precipice of a PR nightmare, eventually, “crowning” itself as one of the greatest product flops in history. Find out how it all went down in Episode 43 of The Great Fail.

The rise and fall of Circuit City is a fascinating tale full of ups and downs, when one Company paved the path and dominated the consumer electronics market only to perish after almost 6 decades.
From having the largest selections, the best prices, and the brightest talent, Circuit City went from an all-American retail success story to one of the greatest failures in corporate history. Find out how on The Great Fail, Episode 42.

On June 22, 2020 Microsoft’s live game streaming service, Mixer, made a stunning announcement. After 4 years of building out its channel for gamers and its beloved community of streamers and fans, they were shutting down. As millions of Mixer active users, and even their own employees were blindsided by the news, it begged the question that was on everyone’s mind- how could this have happened to Microsoft, one of the most powerful and endemic gaming companies in the world?

The DeLorean was one of the most era-defining cars of the ‘80s. Sleek, sexy, and unconventional, this iconic car had much promise- engineering ingenuity, celebrity fanfare, and media hype. But less than a year after it rolled out its first cars, the Company would collapse in a tailspin of lies, drug scandal, bankruptcy, racketeering, criminal trials, and government conspiracies. Find out what led to the downfall of the DeLorean Motor Company on Episode 40 of The Great Fail.

Featuring our guest Barrie Wills-the only surviving executive director of DeLorean Motor Cars Limited and their longest serving employee over its entire history.

On February 21, 2020, Mitchell Modell, CEO of the largest family-owned sporting goods retailer in the United States went on national TV and made a shocking announcement-he asked viewers to help save his company from financial collapse. The 130-year-old brand at one point was a fixture in the northeast U.S. as the premier sporting goods retailer. Find out how Modell’s winning streak came to an end on Episode 39 of The Great Fail.