Albert Dunlap was born in New Jersey in 1937 and studied at West Point Military Academy, briefly serving in the army before moving into the paper industry. Despite being dismissed as president of paper-mill Nitec in 1976 for manipulating earnings, he ran several companies in the 1980s and 1990s, gaining a reputation for saving troubled firms with mass redundancies (hence his nickname, "Chainsaw Al").
In 1996 he was put in charge of Sunbeam, a struggling manufacturer of grills and garden furniture. The stock jumped by 50% after he was hired and then tripled as the company announced an increase in profits.
What was the scam?
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