Data were collected from bankruptcy files, tax authorities, industrial insurance boards, and the Dutch ministry of justice. In about a third of the cases, no evidence of abuse or fraud was found. In a similar proportion of cases, there was some evidence of negligent conduct with respect to creditors' interests, including undercapitalization, insufficient expertise, incompetent management, and bad bookkeeping. In the remaining 37 percent of companies, there were indications of deliberate abuse or fraud. Two major types of abuses were distinguished: asset stripping (found in 22 percent of the total sample) and social security and tax evasion (in 15 percent of the total sample). The former -- usually involving embezzlement, swindling, and fraudulent trading -- refers to the practice of removing goods and money from the company, thereby leaving creditors with no means of redress. The second type of fraud involves the use of a nonfunctional company in conjunction with other companies to escape paying income and turn-over taxes and social security either through labor brokerage or unscrupulous subcontracting. A further examination of actions taken against abusing companies shows that personal sanctions against individuals were rare, cases were frequently dropped for lack of evidence, and only 4 to 5 percent of fraudulent operators received even a short, custodial sentence. Tabular data and footnotes are provided. (Author summary modified)