It's a Scam! It's a scandal! It's ... Super Dell! Looking back on the controversies and blunders that set Utah abuzz.

• Author: Dickson, Spencer
• Position: Scandals and Blunders

At Utah Business, we're used to bringing you success stories. In fact, that's one of our missions--promoting business in Utah through the successes of its stalwart entrepreneurs, executives and pro-business politicians. But we can't always be sweetness and light.

For our 25th anniversary, we thought it would be fun to visit some of the less savory moments in the Utah business landscape. Some you'll remember; others might take some refreshing. And because all of the following 12 events are safely in our rearview (with one possible exception--cough, cough, Mitt Romney), we figured it wouldn't harm anyone to look at them with a lighthearted slant.

We'll never be TMZ, but we hope you'll enjoy our 25-year odyssey into the salacious, the strange and the downright silly.

1986 - Thrift and Loan Industry Collapses; Tempers Flare

How would you feel if you invested a bunch of money in a financial institution you trusted, only to see it go up in smoke? In the parlance of many a Beehive Stater, you'd be mad as heck.

About 15,000 Utah depositors were just that angry when Utah's thrift and loan industry collapsed in the wake of the state's shutting down five thrift and loans. Why the trouble? Blame it on the high interest rates of the 70s and 80s, followed by an economic downturn. Interest rates then rose above savings deposit rates, inviting depositors to withdraw their money faster than the thrifts could maintain funds. Matters were also complicated for the thrifts by severely declining mortgage portfolios.

So what did the depositors do? Stupid question. They sued anyone and everyone they could to get their money back, of course. And get their money back they did (some of it, anyway) in a $100 million settlement from the state in 1988.

The takeaway from all this? When in doubt about a career path, become a lawyer. You're always going to have plenty of work, and if you're good at it you'll be compensated handsomely. Somebody has to gain from scandals like this, right?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

1987-Karma Exacts its Revenge on Mark Hofmann

In January 1987, Mark Hofmann traded in his blue pinstriped suit for a much less distinguished uniform--a blue prison shirt emblazoned with a five-digit serial number. Somewhere, someone must have been cranking the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again at ear-splitting volume.

Hofmann fooled a lot of people. Armed with buckets of ink laced with oak tree excretions to mimic the stuff writers used in the 16th century, he went on a forging rampage the likes of which may never be seen again. In the process, he duped LDS Church leaders, noted historians and FBI agents.

But when the tools of his trade changed from 19th-century paper to explosives, and his M.O. changed from "master forger" to "murderer," the criminal mastermind suddenly didn't seem so smart anymore.

(Later, while in prison, Hofmann lost of the use of his right hand--his forging one--when he overdosed on antidepressants and fell asleep on his right arm for 12 hours, thus cutting Off his circulation. Karma is a witch.)

Today, he's still incarcerated without hope of parole. And somewhere, a hack screenwriter is finishing up a draft of White Salamander, The Mark Hofmann Story, in which a charming, fashionable James Franco-type makes the ladies swoon and is the envy of all thinking men. David Fincher will be tapped to direct, and the youth of America will turn the Hofmann persona into a misunderstood cult hero.

And, of course, the movie's trailer will climax with the bombastic strains of Roger Daltrey's guttural "YEEEEEEAAAAAH!" Sad as it may...