The credentials: Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history at the time, but more importantly, was the most egregious example of planned accounting fraud ever seen. So much so that it was a major factor in the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002 and the cause of "Big Five" accounting firm Arthur Anderson to go out of business. Fun fact: Recipients of the Enron Prize for Distinguished Service -- a $10,000 honorarium, $15,000 sculpture and a crystal trophy --included Colin Powell, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and Alan Greenspan. 9. The Scandal: Lehman Brothers Collapse The players: Dick Fuld, Timothy Geithner, Hank Paulson. The story: Lehman Brothers was a major buyer of sub-prime loans – aka toxic debt -- during the housing boom of the mid-2000s. Using an accounting trick, it "sold" much of this debt to Cayman Island entities -- agreeing to buy it back at a later date – in order to make its balance sheet look stronger than it was.