Patrick Imbardelli resigned as chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group's Asia Pacific region in June 2007 after he falsely claimed to have earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration and an MBA from Cornell University in the US, as well as a Bachelor of Business Studies and Hotel Management from Victoria University in his native Australia. IHG, which decided to run checks after appointing him to the main board, said he had attended classes at both universities but did not graduate from either.

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Dave Edmondson resigned as the chief executive of Radio Shack, the third-largest electronics retailer in America, last February after a newspaper uncovered inaccuracies in his CV.

Mr Edmondson, who joined Radio Shack in 1994 and was appointed chief executive in May 2005, claimed to have earned degrees in theology and psychology from the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College but he only completed two terms at the college, which said it did not offer psychology degrees.

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In 2002, Ronald Zarrella, the chairman and chief executive of Bausch & Lomb, kept his job after the eye care company confirmed reports on the website TheStreet.com that he did not receive an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. The board declined Mr Zarrella's offer to resign and said in a letter that directors "continue to believe you are the right person to carry on the resurgence of the company". However, the company said that he would forfeit a $1.1 million bonus.

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William Maguire, the head of Citigroup's Citicorp brokerage unit, was fired in 2003 after he allegedly lied about his qualifications. Employees of the division, which at that time managed about $36 billion in assets, told The New York Times that Citigroup had dismissed Mr Maguire for making false claims about fulfilling continuing education requirements. Mr Maguire declined to comment on the allegations.

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Jeffrey Papows, the former president of IBM's Lotus unit, resigned in 2000 after The Wall Street Journal found that he had embellished details of his military and academic achievements in his CV and in speeches and statements. He also claimed to be an orphan although his parents were still alive. According to the paper, he claimed to have a PhD from Pepperdine University but had in fact only completed a correspondence course at an unaccredited college. In addition, military records showed he had never been a Marine Corp aviator and captain, as he claimed, but a military air-traffic controller who rose no higher than lieutenant.

Mr Papows, who was also the subject of a sexual harassment complaint, later admitted: "I, in some senses, am guilty of exaggerating and embellishing for a purpose from a business standpoint."

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Ann Wilson was sacked as managing director of BBC Technology in 2004 for “misuse of hospitality” following an internal investigation. It was later discovered that she was a convicted fraudster. In 1997, she had resigned as head of global electronic commerce at Origin, a subsidiary of the electronics giant Philips, after her criminal record came to light. Even after being ousted from the BBC, she got a job as a senior client partner at the headhunter Korn/Ferry and was made a non-executive director at Datamonitor. In June 2005, less than four months after hiring her, Datamonitor announced she had resigned “for personal reasons.”

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In 2001, Richard Li, the chairman of PCCW, the Hong Kong telecoms group, had to order his staff to remove claims on his company’s website that he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in computer engineering after the institution confirmed that he had not been awarded a degree. Mr Li, who studied there but did not graduate, blamed the error on his staff.

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Charles Thomson, the chief executive of Equitable Life, admitted in 2005 that a glowing reference apparently from Mike Ross, his former boss at Scottish Widows, was actually written by himself without Mr Ross's authorisation. The reference said Mr Thomson had enjoyed "an exceptional level of success" at Scottish Widows. It added: "We will miss his intellect, integrity and energy and feel sure that he will bring great value to other organisations at the highest levels."

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Nick Leeson, who was responsible for the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995 after losing more than £800 million, failed to disclose a County Court judgement for unpaid debts in his application to be licensed as a derivatives trader which was submitted by Barings. The Securities and Futures Authority said it discovered the judgement after conducting its own check and passed on its findings to Barings, which withdrew the application. Mr Leeson was then sent to Singapore.

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Jimmy Gulliver, the late former head of the Argyll drinks group, falsely claimed in his Who's Who entry to have graduated from Harvard University. The truth emerged during a fierce £2.3 billion takeover battle between Guinness and Argyll for Distiller's, the Scottish whisky group, in the 1980s. With Mr Gulliver's credibility damaged, Argyll eventually lost out to Guinness.