Patriot Coal

Patriot Coal's story is one of deliberately manufactured failure. Peabody Energy spun off Patriot in 2007, stuffing it with older Appalachian mines and $1 billion in healthcare obligations for 8,100 retired miners. The structure was designed to fail: high-cost mines, legacy liabilities, and minimal capital. Patriot filed bankruptcy in 2012, then again in 2015, ultimately liquidating. The case became a textbook example of how parent companies use spinoffs to externalize liabilities - corporate parasitism where the host dies by design.