Data came from government reports, hearings, personal interviews, and media accounts. A 1989 report by the General Accounting Office found that each of the failed institutions in its sample was a victim of fraud and abuse in some form. Problems included inadequate record keeping, appraisal deficiencies, deceptive records, excessive compensation and expenditures, and many other problems. The three basic categories of crime were unlawful risk taking, collective embezzlement, and covering up. Overall, fraud was a pervasive and costly component of the thrift crisis, which will probably represent the largest single set of white- collar crimes in history. Notes and 43 references