This Day In Blunders: July
A day-by-day record of corporate blunders, regulatory crackdowns, bankruptcies, and leadership failures for July
This archive tracks major business blunders that occurred on each day in July, from historic corporate collapses to modern fraud cases and executive failures.
July 1
Abraham Lincoln — Regulatory Action (1862)
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1862, creating the first U.S. income tax to finance the Civil War.
Del Monte Foods — Bankruptcy (2025)
Del Monte Foods, the 138-year-old canned food giant, filed bankruptcy, citing declining consumer demand and high costs related to storing excess inventory.
July 2
Pacific Gas & Electric — Settlement (1996)
Pacific Gas &Electric agreed to a record $333 million settlement in the Erin Brockovich-led Hinkley groundwater contamination case– one of the largest environmental lawsuit payouts in U.S. history.
Napster — Shutdown (2001)
Napster shut down its music-sharing service after a federal court ordered it to stop facilitating copyright infringement, marking the collapse of the platform that had upended the music industry and ignited the digital piracy era.
Samuel Israel III — Fraud Sentencing (2008)
Samuel Israel III, founder of BayouGroup, was arrested after surrendering to police, ending a fugitive saga after he faked his own death to avoid serving a 20-year sentence for investor fraud. Read More: Samuel Israel III – Bayou Group (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
July 3
Philip Morris — Settlement (1997)
Philip Morris announced a massive settlement with Mississippi over Medicaid costs tied to smoking-related illnesses, part of the wave that culminated in the Master Settlement Agreement.
Barclays — CEO Resignation (2012)
Bob Diamond resigned as CEO of Barclays amid the LIBOR manipulation scandal, after regulators found the bank had submitted false borrowing rates used to help set a benchmark tied to trillions of dollars in financial contracts.
Lucky Brand — Bankruptcy (2020)
On this day in 2020, Lucky Brand Dungarees, a Los Angeles-based denim retailer filed bankruptcy, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sales.
July 4
News of the World — Fraud Scandal (2011)
A lawyer for the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler revealed that police told them her voicemail had been hacked by the News of the World. This revelation, which indicated the paper accessed her phone shortly after her disappearance in 2002, triggered a massive scandal.
July 5
Ken Lay — Death (2006)
Enron founder Ken Lay died of a heart attack just weeks after being convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history. Read More: Ken Lay – Enron (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
July 6
Dynegy — Bankruptcy (2012)
Dynegy filed bankruptcy after a debt-fueled expansion collided with falling power prices, forcing a restructuring that wiped out shareholders and handed the company to its lenders.
July 7
Boeing — Guilty Plea (2024)
Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a felony fraud charge tied to its deadly 737 Max crashes, but the deal later unraveled, and prosecutors ultimately withdrew the charge, avoiding a criminal conviction for the aerospace giant. Read More: Con Air (Business Blunders)
July 8
Adelphia Communications — Fraud Conviction (2004)
John Rigas and Timothy Rigas were convicted of hiding billions in debt while looting Adelphia Communications. They were later re-sentenced to 12 and 17 years in prison. Read More: John Rigas – Adelphia Communications (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Brooks Brothers — Bankruptcy (2020)
Brooks Brothers filed bankruptcy, citing financial distress from the Covid pandemic, which accelerated the 200-year-old retailer’s struggles with declining demand for formal business attire.
July 9
X — CEO Resignation (2025)
Linda Yaccarino stepped down from X, capping a rocky run defined by advertiser pullbacks and constant disruption at the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. Read More: Better To Be An Ex-CEO Than An X CEO (Business Blunders)
July 10
Peregrine Financial — Bankruptcy (2010)
Peregrine Financial filed bankruptcy after overstating revenues by hundreds of millions. The filing occurred one day after the firm’s founder and CEO, Russell Wasendorf Sr., attempted suicide and left a note confessing to a 20-year fraud that involved over $100 million in missing customer funds.
July 11
Coca-Cola — Product Failure (1985)
The Coca-Cola Co. announced “Coca-Cola Classic,” retreating from the New Coke fiasco in a tacit admission of a legendary marketing blunder. Read More: The Biggest Business Blunders Of All Time (Blunder Lists)
IndyMac Bank — Collapse (2008)
IndyMac Bank failed, its bet on risky Alt-A and “liar loans” turning a mortgage boom into one of the biggest bank collapses in U.S. history.
Christopher Kirchner — Fraud Sentencing (2024)
Christopher Kirchner, former CEO of Slync, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud after treating investor money like a personal expense account. He’d created a Salesforce-like platform for supply chain logistics. Then he used company funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle, including luxury travel and high-end purchases. Chris Kirchner – Slync (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Papa John's — Executive Ouster (2018)
John Schnatter resigned as chairman of Papa John’s International after using a racial slur during a company training call. The –ounder’s own words torched the brand he built, triggering backlash, lost partnerships, and a rapid corporate cleanup. Read More: CEOs Say The Dumbest Things (Blunder Lists)
July 12
Allianz Global Investors — Guilty Plea (2023)
Allianz Global Investors U.S. pleaded guilty to criminal securities fraud charges and agreed to pay more than $5 billion in penalties and restitution. Prosecutors said the firm misled investors about downside risks in Structured Alpha funds which collapsed during the Covid market shock – one of the largest hedge-fund fraud cases in recent history.
July 13
Marc Dreier — Fraud Sentencing (2009)
Marc Dreier was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a $740 million fraud that used fake promissory notes to fleece hedge funds. Read More: 15 Tales Of Lost Ponzi Riches (Blunder Lists)
Celsius Network — Bankruptcy (2022)
Celsius Network filed bankruptcy after freezing customer withdrawals. Its founder Alex Mashinsky was later charged with fraud for allegedly misleading investors about the platform’s risks. Read More: ‘Banks Are Not Your Friends’ (Business Blunders)
Conrad Black — Fraud Conviction (2007)
Conrad Black, head of newspaper giant Hollinger International, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and other major papers, was convicted of fraud and obstruction for siphoning company funds. He was later sentenced to six and a half years in prison. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2019.
July 14
Bernard Ebbers — Fraud Sentencing (2005)
Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in an $11 billion accounting fraud. Read More: Bernie Ebbers – WorldCom (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
July 15
Goldman Sachs — Settlement (2010)
Goldman Sachs paid a then-record $550 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges over a subprime mortgage deal that misled investors at the height of the financial crisis.
July 16
Trump Taj Mahal — Bankruptcy (1991)
The Trump Taj Mahal filed bankruptcy, the first of several filings by Donald Trump-controlled casino and hotel businesses over the following decades.
July 17
F.W. Woolworth — Shutdown (1997)
F. W. Woolworth Co. announced it would close its remaining U.S. five-and-dime stores, ending a 117-year run as big-box and specialty retailers left the once-dominant chain behind.
Goldman Sachs — CEO Resignation (2018)
On this day in 2018, Lloyd Blankfein announced he would step down as CEO of Goldman Sachs after steering the firm through the financial crisis and years of scrutiny that followed.
July 18
Jordan Belfort — Fraud Sentencing (2003)
Jordan Belfort, the “Wolf of Wall Street,” was sentenced to four years in prison for running a massive securities fraud and mone laundering scheme. Read More: Jordan Belfort – Stratton Oakmont (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
July 19
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. — Bankruptcy (2015)
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. filed bankruptcy a second time, marking the final collapse of a grocery giant that couldn’t keep up with modern competitors.
CrowdStrike — Operational Failure (2024)
CrowdStrike pushed a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor security software that crashed millions of Microsoft Windows systems worldwide, grounding flights, disrupting hospitals, and knocking businesses offline in one of the largest IT outages in history. Read More: Canary In a Crowdstrike (Business Blunders)
Astronomer — CEO Resignation (2025)
Astronomer CEO Andy Bryon resigned after he was spotted on a Jumbotron canoodling with the company’s HR director. Read More: Just Smile And Wave (Business Blunders)
July 20
BP — CEO Resignation (2010)
Tony Hayward resigned as CEO of BP after mismanaging the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a crisis that spiraled into one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Read More: CEOs Say The Dumbest Things (Blunder Lists)
July 21
WorldCom — Bankruptcy (2002)
WorldCom filed bankruptcy, then the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history, after a massive accounting fraud came to light. Read More: Bernie Ebbers – WorldCom (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Toshiba — Accounting Scandal (2015)
Toshiba admitted it had overstated profits by more than $1 billion over several years, as executives pressured employees to inflate results, triggering a sweeping leadership shakeup and a collapse in trust.
Fox News — CEO Resignation (2016)
Roger Ailes resigned as CEO of Fox News amid sexual harassment allegations against him and other top network personalities, triggering a major leadership crisis.
July 22
Dell — Settlement (2010)
Regulators charged Dell Inc. and senior executives, including Michael Dell, with disclosure and accounting fraud. The regulator said the company used undisclosed payments from Intel and accounting maneuvers to make it appear it consistently met Wall Street expectations. Dell agreed to pay a $100 million penalty, while Michael Dell personally paid $4 million and other executives also faced fines.
Gina Champion-Cain — Guilty Plea (2020)
Gina Champion-Cain, a San Diego restaurateur, pleaded guilty to running a massive Ponzi scheme that involved the sale of fake liquor license loans. She was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.
July 23
Trendon Shavers — Fraud Charges (2013)
Regulators charged Trendon Shavers with running a Bitcoin-denominated Ponzi scheme, one of the first major crypto fraud crackdowns. Shavers, operating “Bitcoin Savings and Trust,” promised outsized returns but instead used new investor funds to pay earlier participants. The Texas man was later ordered to pay more than $40 million in disgorgement and penalties, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
July 24
Billy McFarland — Fraud Charges (2018)
Regulators charged Billy McFarland with fraud tied to the disastrous Fyre Festival, a luxury festival that devolved into chaos. He later went to prison. Read More: Billy McFarland – Fyre Festival (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Christina Chapman — Fraud Sentencing (2025)
Christina Chapman was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for a $17 million scheme that placed North Korean IT workers in U.S. jobs using stolen identities, generating revenue for the regime.
July 25
Amazon — Product Failure (2014)
Amazon released the Fire Phone, which flopped badly and was discontinued shortly after.
July 26
Robert Brennan — Fraud Sentencing (2001)
Penny stock huckster Robert E. Brennan was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for money laundering and bankruptcy fraud, ending years of illegal penny-stock pump-and-dump schemes. Read More: Robert Brennan – First Jersey Securities (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Ben Franklin Stores — Bankruptcy (1996)
Ben Franklin Retail Stores filed bankruptcy, hastening the demise of a classic five-and-dime retailer that couldn’t keep up with modern competition.
July 27
Joseph Nacchio — Fraud Sentencing (2007)
Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications, was sentenced to six year in prison for insider trading after the company was embroiled in an accounting scandal and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Read More: Joe Nacchio – Qwest (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
July 28
Cadence Design Systems — Guilty Plea (2025)
Cadence Design Systems agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million to resolve criminal charges for exporting sensitive chip-design technology to a Chinese military university in violation of U.S. export controls. Read More: The Outrageous Acts Of Criminally Charged Corporations (Blunder Lists)
July 29
Q.T. Wiles — Fraud Conviction (1994)
Q.T. Wiles, former CEO of MiniScribe, was convicted of fraud for orchestrating an accounting scandal that included shipping boxes of bricks disguised as inventory. Read More: Q.T Wiles – Miniscribe (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Citigroup — Fraud Charges (2010)
Regulators charged Citigroup and two executives with misleading investors about its exposure to subprime mortgage-related assets. The bank later agreed to pay $75 million to settle the charges.
Helios Technologies — CEO Firing (2024)
Helios Technologies fired CEO Josef Matosevic for violating company policy related to a consensual relationship with an employee. Read More: Lost In Love (Blunder Lists)
July 30
IG Farben — Criminal Conviction (1948)
IG Farben executives were convicted in a Nuremberg tribunal for their roles in Nazi war crimes, marking a landmark moment in holding corporate leaders accountable.
Jimmy Hoffa — Disappearance (1975)
Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa vanished without a trace while heading to a meeting with reputed mob figures outside a restaurant in suburban Detroit– one of the most infamous disappearances in U.S. history.
George W. Bush — Regulatory Action (2002)
George W. Bush signed the Sarbanes–Oxley Act into law, a sweeping crackdown on corporate accounting abuses after scandals like Enron and WorldCom.
Bed Bath & Beyond — Shutdown (2023)
Bed Bath & Beyond shut down its remaining stores after filing bankruptcy, ending a 52-year run undone by shifting retail trends and mounting losses.
July 31
Bear Stearns — Bankruptcy (2007)
Two Bear Stearns hedge funds filed bankruptcy, wiping out roughly $1.6 billion in investor funds and signaling an early crack in the subprime mortgage meltdown.