In 2011, Buffett was stung when one of his top lieutenants and a potential successor, David Sokol, broke the company's insider trading rules in a share-dealing controversy that most definitely did not pass the "newspaper test." Sokol resigned from Berkshire Hathaway in the wake of the scandal. Report bad news -- and bad apples -- quickly Berkshire Hathaway ultimately concluded that Sokol had misled the company with regard to his actions -- a cardinal sin on the part of an executive who was supposed to be an example and a watchman.