There are still major questions surrounding the July collapse of Oklahoma oil-and-gas transporter SemGroup, but at the heart of the company's sudden bankruptcy are $2.4 billion in losses from traders betting oil prices would decline smack in the middle of a run-up to $147 a barrel. There would have been plenty of business reason for SemGroup to be hedging, yet the stunning $2 billion margin call that knocked the firm into illiquidity definitely implies the strategy was more one of speculation, as does the odd fact that the company's then-CEO was personally responsible for about $290 million of the losses through his own trading company. A former director of the FBI has been appointed by the bankruptcy court to investigate the trades; most of the people involved so far haven't talked.
The Top 10 Everything of 2008
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Awkward Moments
- Top 10 Best Business Deals
- Top 10 Worst Business Deals
- Top 10 Breakups
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Campaign Gaffes
- Top 10 Campaign Video Moments
- Top 10 Children's Books
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
- Top 10 Election Photos
- Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
- Top 10 Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Financial Collapses
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Stories
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late Night Gags
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Museum Exhibits
- Top 10 News Stories
- Top 10 Non-fiction Books
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Olympic Moments
- Top 10 Open Mike Moments
- Top 10 Outrageous Earmarks
- Top 10 Photos
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Lines
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans
- Top 10 TV Ads
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- Top 10 Underreported News Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
A yearbook of all the top events you've been talking about