Complex sentence: Scandal exploded in 2003 with the discovery that city finances had been manipulated with massive losses in the pension fund scandal; it left the city with an estimated $1.4 billion pension fund gap.
Split into simpler sentences: Scandal exploded in 2003 with the discovery that city finances had been manipulated with massive losses in the pension fund scandal. It left the city with an estimated $1.4 billion pension fund gap.