Business

What the Business desk covers

The business beat covers the boardroom end of scandal: startups that collapsed, founders charged with fraud, companies that settled with regulators and the investors who sued. It treats every valuation as a claim and every sentence handed down as a fact.

The test for a business story is whether a document backs it. A founder's pitch deck, a viral thread from a short seller or a leaked memo can start a story here, but it is told through what a regulator, a court or the company's own filings later said. Where a company says one thing to investors and another to the public, the desk quotes both filings side by side.

The records this beat is built on

Securities filings

Annual and quarterly reports, proxy statements and disclosure of risks and lawsuits filed with the securities regulator.

Indictments and plea agreements

Federal and state charging papers, pleas and sentencing records, which state what was charged and what was admitted.

Regulator orders

Settlements and orders from securities, trade, consumer and banking regulators, with the penalty and whether wrongdoing was admitted.

Bankruptcy dockets

Petitions, creditor lists and examiner reports, where the real size of a collapse usually comes out.

House rules on this beat

Business stories keep three things apart: what was charged, what was admitted and what was proved. A settlement without admission is described as exactly that. Restitution and forfeiture are reported separately from fines, and a conviction under appeal is reported with the appeal. Executives are not called fraudsters until a court or their own plea says so.