Silicon Valley Bank made Forbes’ annual list of America’s Best Banks just weeks before regulators seized control because it couldn’t meet withdrawal demands.
The bank announced the achievement on Twitter last week, even noting that it had been on the list for five consecutive years.
For the past decade, the prestigious lists compiled by Forbes have been mocked for defending people and companies that have then ruthlessly failed.
Public figures who have been celebrated by the publication before suffering unglamorous demise include FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, WeWork’s Adam Neumann and Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes.
Concerned customers queue outside the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank on March 13 to withdraw their money. It came just over a week after being recommended by Forbes magazine as one of the best banks in America.
In a since-deleted tweet posted on March 6, Silicon Valley Bank announced that it has been on the Forbes list five years in a row.
“Proud to be in @Forbes’ annual ranking of America’s Best Banks for the fifth consecutive year and also to have been named to the publication’s inaugural Financial All-Stars list,” SVB tweeted last Monday.
The bank has since removed its Twitter account and its website has been taken down.
After SVB’s bankruptcy, an editorial note was added to an update of the America’s Best Banks 2023 page on the Forbes website.
It read: ‘(Editor’s note: After this list was published on February 16, 2023, SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and was placed under FDIC control on March 10 due to a bank run provoked by by fears about their interest rate exposure). ‘
The high-profile collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its sister company Alameda Research were other recent events to hit the once-announced American business magazine.
Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX and Alameda Research, which dramatically collapsed late last year, graced the cover of Forbes in October 2021.
In October 2021, Bankman-Fried graced the magazine’s cover as a member of the 40th annual Forbes 400 list, which features the 400 richest Americans.
An accompanying story for the listing saw Bankman-Fried described as someone who was trying to make as much money as possible so he could put it to good use.
“He’s an ‘effective altruist,’ which is sort of a Silicon Valley philanthropic bent that relies on reason and data to do the greatest good in the world,” the story reads.
Late last year, his exchange was rocked by a surge in attempts to withdraw funds, and due to a lack of liquidity, it eventually crashed.
The 31-year-old man was extradited from the Bahamas, where FTX was headquartered, to face criminal charges in a Manhattan court. He has been released on bail and is awaiting trial for fraud on October 2.
Adam Neumann was once heralded as one of the world’s most eligible young business leaders by Forbes. He appeared on its cover in October 2017.
The 43-year-old Israeli-American co-founded WeWork in 2010 with the goal of disrupting the commercial real estate industry, but after a failed IP he was forced to resign as its CEO.
Adam Neumann was also once listed as one of the world’s most eligible young business leaders by Forbes and was featured on the magazine’s cover in October 2017.
The 43-year-old Israeli-American co-founded WeWork in 2010 with the goal of disrupting the commercial real estate industry.
Like some of the others to enjoy their own Forbes cover celebration, Neumann flew too close to the sun. After heavily investing in WeWork’s unsustainable expansion, and following a failed IPO in 2019, he stepped down as the company’s chief executive.
The dramatic history of WeWork and its meteoric rise and collapse was even documented on the television series WeCrashed.
The series starred Jared Leto as the eccentric Neumann, known for walking barefoot, smoking pot, and drinking tequila.
Forbes listed Elizabeth Holmes as one of the richest women on the planet in 2014, but the following year, a Wall Street Journal report cast doubt on the technology announced by her startup, Theranos.
In 2014, Forbes listed Elizabeth Holmes as one of the richest women on the planet, and she graced the cover of the September 2015 issue.
Holmes was the founder of Theranos, an ambitious start-up that claims to revolutionize blood testing.
But the technology began to come under scrutiny and condemnation. Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 marked the beginning of Holmes’s death.
The WSJ report found that the vast majority of its tests were done with traditional vials of blood drawn from the arm, and not the “few drops” drawn by a finger prick as initially claimed.
In November 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for wire fraud and defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.