Just as the merger was about to close, Minkow was exposed by the discovery of the credit card fraud that helped keep his company alive in the early years. Minkow had blamed the fraudulent charges on unscrupulous contractors and another employee, and paid back most of the victims. However, he had not paid back a homemaker who had been overcharged a few hundred dollars. When Minkow ignored her requests to pay her back, she tracked down several other people who had been defrauded by Minkow and gave a diary of her findings to the "Los Angeles Times." The "Times" then wrote a story revealing that Minkow had run up $72,000 in fraudulent credit card charges in 1984 and 1985. The story, which ran just days before the KeyServ merger was to close, sent ZZZZ Best stock plunging 28 percent.