The New York Times has an interesting story today on the demise of Erie-based Rent-Way Inc. The piece describes how the company's effort to make public an accounting scandal -- while an example of how to handle such a situation -- ultimately led to the company's sale to Rent-A-Center Inc.

The story explains the situation well. But before it gets nominated for the Pulitzer -- as one local blogger seems to think it should be -- consider that the NY Times story is far from original.

In fact, Erie Times-News readers have read the whole story -- and in much greater detail -- three years ago.

About the only piece that wasn't included in our six-part series, "Anatomy of a Fraud", was this fall's sale to Rent-A-Center because, well, it hadn't happened yet.

To read the six-part series, written in chapter form, click on the following links

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six