1. Lehman Brothers
The Lehman Brothers Holding corporation declared bankruptcy in 2008 for nearly $700 billion. The company filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is the largest bankruptcy in US history. The biggest complication with the Lehman Brothers' filing of bankruptcy is that it was the primary dealer within the United States Treasury securities market, which means that most every financial organization in North America was affected by this large bankruptcy.
2. WA Mutual
Two weeks after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Washington Mutual followed with a $328 billion chapter 13 bankruptcy of its own. Immediately following WA Mutual's bankruptcy filing, the company was taken out from the NYSE and all assets and the bulk of the company's liabilities were taken on by JPMorgan Chase. All customers of the WA Mutual Bank had their accounts transferred to JPMorgan Chase, as well.
3. WorldCom
Before 2008, WorldCom held the largest bankruptcy in history with a situation in 2002 that listed the company’s assets at nearly $104 billion. Numerous scandals led to the company filing for bankruptcy and eventually being bought by Verizon. The scandal at WorldCom is one of the worst crimes in U.S. history and involved several of the company's chief executives. The company was awarded a reorganization agreement by the US bankruptcy courts in which it was only required to pay back $750 million to its investors.
4. General Motors
This U.S. automobile creator was the second largest such business in the world in 2008. In June of 2009, however, the company was obliged into filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company reported a net differential in debt and belongings of $91 billion.
5. CIT Group
CIT Inc. is an American financial company that's been in existence since the early 1900s. In 2009 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The group spent many years accumulating more than $70 billion in debt and was forced into bankruptcy following the Lehman Brothers failures, which left CIT with no credibility. One of the biggest downfalls for CIT Group was its inability to successfully handle US TARP funds which led to a nearly $5 billion bailout from the US government.
6. Enron
Enron was considered to be the head of the energy industry in the United States during the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2001 it was revealed that the company's success was only the result of big accounting frauds. Enron was also a huge audit failure as one of America's top auditing firms was also involved in the scandal. The bankruptcy amounted to more than $65 billion in lost assets.
