Amy Cuddy's power posing was a TED talk phenomenon — and the science collapsed
A Harvard study claimed power poses changed your hormones. One TED talk, 50M views, then corporate training — and the science never replicated.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDKobe Steel falsified quality data for decades — and 500 companies paid the price
Japan's third-largest steelmaker admitted in 2017 it had faked product specs for decades. The fraud affected Boeing, Toyota, and hundreds more.
Read the caseNorthrop Grumman B-2 down: moisture from rain distorted airspeed sensors, $1.4 billion
Moisture from rain distorted the B-2's airspeed sensors, the flight computers calculated wrong data, and a $1.4 billion stealth bomber stalled on takeoff.
Read the caseNASA's arsenic life press conference was a PR disaster — the science never held up
NASA hyped a bacterium that could use arsenic instead of phosphorus — the claim collapsed in two years, but the damage took a decade.
Read the caseIBM spent $4 billion on Watson Health and got a $1 billion exit
IBM's Watson was supposed to revolutionize cancer treatment — instead it became a $4 billion lesson in overhyping AI.
Read the caseGlencore's $1.5 billion in bribes bought oil access — and a criminal record
Glencore paid $1.5 billion in penalties after admitting it bribed government officials across six African countries to secure oil deals.
Read the casePeace Mark grew to 10,000 employees selling watches — then debt killed it in weeks
A $500M bridge loan bought Sincere Watch and a movement maker. When banks demanded $156M back, the whole HK watch empire collapsed into provisional liquidation.
Read the caseTrafigura lost $577 million buying nickel cargoes that were actually carbon steel
Trafigura paid for shiploads of nickel that turned out to be carbon steel — the most expensive cargo inspection failure in commodity trading history.
Read the caseFood52 bought a furniture company at $48M — then collapsed into Chapter 11
The recipe site grew to a $300M valuation, but the $48M Schoolhouse acquisition saddled it with debt. America's Test Kitchen bought it for $6.5M.
Read the caseAfter three insolvencies, German fashion brand Gerry Weber closed its stores
Gerry Weber filed for insolvency in 2019, 2020, and 2025. The third time, it closed all remaining stores. The brand was sold to a Spanish group.
Read the caseTraders rigged the $5T-a-day forex market — $10B+ in fines and chat-room convictions
Fifteen banks used chat rooms to manipulate the $5.3 trillion-a-day forex market. The fines exceeded $10 billion and traders went to prison.
Read the caseHuawei's affiliate Dingqiao sold phones that looked like Huawei — and confused everyone
Dingqiao, a Huawei affiliate, sold phones that looked like Huawei but had different internals. Customers only found out years later.
Read the caseLogitech China called customers 'dogs' in an ad — and got fined for it
Logitech's Douyin ad said 'when I cut the price, you come running like a dog.' The backlash was instant and the regulator fined the company.
Read the caseSK Telecom fined a record 134.8 billion won for SIM data leak affecting 23 million users
SK Telecom was fined a record $97.2M after 26.1 million SIM keys were found stored in plain text and security patches left unapplied for years.
Read the caseMorris Profumi: a €100M fragrance house entered liquidation in 2020
A historic Italian fragrance manufacturer founded in 1946 peaked at €100M in revenue. After Henkel and PE funds took over, it filed for liquidation in 2020.
Read the caseClover Games won Korea's top game award in 2020 — six years later it filed for bankruptcy
Lord of Heroes developer won the 2020 Korea Game Awards Grand Prize, then burned through cash, neglected its hit game, and filed for bankruptcy in April 2026.
Read the caseValentino Beauty entered Korea in 2022 — both stores closed by 2025
L'Oréal launched Valentino Beauty in Korea in 2022 with 2 stores. K-beauty and established luxury brands left no room — both counters closed by Dec 2025.
Read the caseBourjois, a French makeup brand present in the UK for decades, pulled out in 2019
Coty pulled Bourjois from the UK in Dec 2019 after declining sales made the market unviable. Its high street presence vanished overnight.
Read the caseBarry M, a 46-year-old UK makeup brand, filed for administration in 2026
Barry M Cosmetics, founded in 1980, filed for administration in Feb 2026 after rising costs and weaker spending eroded the mid-market brand.
Read the caseThink Global, Norway's electric car pioneer, went bankrupt — again
A Norwegian EV startup that went bankrupt four times in 20 years, burning through $200M in investor money and never reaching scale.
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