The $4.9 Billion Man

“Coral Gables banker Alfred R. Camner is the $4.9 billion man.” That’s Martha Brannigan’s lede on one of two retrospective articles she did on the failed BankUnited for The Miami Herald. The articles describe how BankUnited provided fat salaries and bonuses for Camner and his family and paid his law firm, also run by kin, more than $30.9 million in legal fees. And now, the bank's failed lending strategy will end up costing the FDIC almost $5 billion.

Today’s Tip: Use retrospective articles to put current news in context. For publicly traded companies, look for sources such as investors with large amounts of stock or corporate governance experts, such as The Corporate Library in Portland, Me. SEC documents, available via the online EDGAR database, can help sort out executive compensation and family connections among company officials.

In this example, Brannigan uses a writing technique often employed by The Wall Street Journal – telling the story through one key player. In this case, it’s the bank’s founder.