On Monday, shares of UAL Corp. NASDAQ: UAUA) tanked following a story on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel website stating that the company had filed for bankruptcy. It turned out that the story was a rerun of a 2002 piece, apparently posted on the website by mistake.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the Securities & Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into the circumstances surrounding the dissemination of the story and subsequent price drop, in an attempt to determine whether it may have been a case of deliberate manipulation and foul play.

Tribune, the parent company of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, has explained that the whole mess began when a single visit to the archived story early Sunday morning pushed the story onto its top business news page, where it was then picked up by Google News and Bloomberg.

That certainly doesn't sound nefarious, if it's the complete story, but it is a little scary: one night owl Googling old news stories can start a domino effect leading to national media outlets reporting the bankruptcy of a billion dollar company?

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal's "Fund Track" reported that some banks struggling to raise capital may sell their money management units. National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) is selling its Allegiant Funds, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) is considering selling its Fifth Third Asset Management, and KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) will possibly sell its Victory Capital Management unit.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that Andrew Cuomo, the New York state Attorney General, is preparing to file civil securities-fraud charges against UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), possibly as early as this week. Sources said the lawsuit may include allegations of malfeasance by senior UBS executives.

WEB SITES:

• Bloomberg reported that money manager John Paulson, the owner of Paulson & Co., is launching a hedge fund that will provide capital to financial firms which have been damaged by the housing crisis. Paulson, who wants to open the fund by December, used bets against the U.S. housing market to help him earn $3.7B in 2007.
• After U.S. lawmakers reached a deal on legislation to alleviate the housing recession, the House of Representatives will today vote on a rescue plan for Fannie Mae -- Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) -- and Freddie Mac -- Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE). Representative Barney Frank said that the package, which increases the likelihood Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will get the authority to inject capital into the two, is "fully acceptable," Bloomberg reported.
• Oil trading losses forced SemGroup LP, which used to be America's 12th largest private company, to declare bankruptcy yesterday. Reuters noted that SemGroup LP's parent company is SemGroup Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: SGLP).

The 2005 collapse of Refco, one of the largest commodities brokers in the world, was fast and furious. One day it was a high-flying IPO perfect for those who missed out on the CME Group (NYSE: CME) run-up (that ended up continuing). Then it went bankrupt after disclosing hidden losses and concealed debt. The whole mess unraveled in about a week.

On Friday, 59-year old former chairman and CEO Phillip Bennett pleaded guilty to a 20-count indictment including charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison and also has to turn over $2.4 billion in assets to the government, which could make it tough for him to afford granola bars at the prison canteen. In 2006, the company's art collection was sold by Christie's to raise money for the creditors.

Mr. Bennett is currently confined to his New Jersey home while he awaits sentencing.

Thanks to Gary Weiss' blog for bringing this one to my attention.

Beverlee Kamerling, 63, and her son, Nicholas Alexander, 22, have been indicted on 21 counts related to a large securities fraud scheme.

The pair, along with six others, allegedly took control of 6 companies (including America Asia Energy, Coattec Industries Inc., Detex Security Systems Inc. and Global Gaming Network Inc.), issued false and misleading press releases about the companies and engaged in fax blasts to promote the shares.

Of course, while all this happened they were also, allegedly, selling unregistered securities.

Real creative, mama and baby. That's only been done about 11 million times.

I've always wondered why more women don't seem to get involved in securities fraud -- it's possible that it's just a reflection of the fact that Wall Street is still mainly male-dominated. Or perhaps, women are just more honest.

In any case, we can chalk this one up as a victory for equal opportunity securities fraud. And it is heartwarming to see mother and child bonding over the bilking of penny-stock players.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2006. Vote for it as the Money Story of the Year or check out the other nominees in the category.

The demise of Enron will likely turn out to be the biggest business story of the decade -- maybe even the century. The once $60 billion market cap energy trading giant dissolved into worthlessness in an ugly morass of accounting fraud and human greed in late 2001.

But 2006 was the year in the long, sad saga that some justice was finally meted out to Enron's top executives. Former chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were both convicted in the spring on charges including securities fraud, making false statements, and conspiracy. Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow was sentenced to six years in jail after he pleaded guilty to several charges of securities fraud and agreed to testify against his former bosses.

But the Enron story continued to provide shocking twists, even at this stage. Ken Lay died suddenly of a heart attack in July. BloggingStocks readers not only doubted that he had died of natural causes (many suspected suicide), but others doubted he had died at all.

Lay's conviction was vacated in October because he died before his sentencing. That seems to have preserved his wealth for his heirs.

Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in jail in late October. When we wrote about the sentence, 64% of readers responding to a poll said the jail time was too short. Skilling, at his sentencing, continued to profess his innocence.