Company↕ | Year Exposed↕ | Key Figure↕ | Country↕ | Fraud Size (USD B)↕ | What Happened↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Enron | 2001 | Jeffrey Skilling | United States | 74 | Used SPEs to hide debt and inflate profits, CEO got 24 years, destroyed Arthur Andersen |
Theranos | 2015 | Elizabeth Holmes | United States | 9 | Fake blood testing tech, WSJ expose, Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison |
FTX | 2022 | Sam Bankman-Fried | Bahamas | 8 | Diverted customer funds to Alameda, collapsed in days, SBF got 25 years |
Wirecard | 2020 | Markus Braun | Germany | 2 | Fabricated 1.9 billion euros in cash, Jan Marsalek fled, Germany's largest fraud |
WorldCom | 2002 | Bernard Ebbers | United States | 11 | Capitalized expenses to inflate earnings, Ebbers got 25 years, died in prison |
Bernard Madoff Securities | 2008 | Bernie Madoff | United States | 65 | Largest Ponzi scheme in history, ran for decades, Madoff got 150 years |
Tyco International | 2002 | Dennis Kozlowski | United States | 0.6 | CEO stole 600 million dollars, infamous 2 million dollar Sardinia birthday party on shareholder dime |
Volkswagen Dieselgate | 2015 | Martin Winterkorn | Germany | 33 | Defeat devices cheated emissions tests on 11 million diesels, 33 billion in fines |
WeWork | 2019 | Adam Neumann | United States | 47 | S-1 exposed self-dealing and losses, IPO pulled, valuation crashed from 47B to 8B |
1MDB | 2015 | Jho Low | Malaysia | 4.5 | Malaysian sovereign wealth fund looted, Goldman Sachs paid 3.9 billion, PM Najib jailed |
Adelphia Communications | 2002 | John Rigas | United States | 2.3 | Rigas family hid 2.3 billion in debt, used company as personal piggy bank |
HealthSouth | 2003 | Richard Scrushy | United States | 2.7 | Earnings inflated by 2.7 billion, Scrushy acquitted in criminal trial, later jailed for bribery |
Parmalat | 2003 | Calisto Tanzi | Italy | 18 | Italian dairy giant hid 14 billion euro hole, Bank of America account statement was forged |
Olympus Corporation | 2011 | Tsuyoshi Kikukawa | Japan | 1.7 | Hid losses for 13 years via tobashi schemes, exposed by British CEO Michael Woodford |
Lehman Brothers Repo 105 | 2010 | Dick Fuld | United States | 50 | Used Repo 105 accounting trick to temporarily move 50 billion off balance sheet each quarter |
Nikola Motors | 2020 | Trevor Milton | United States | 30 | Hindenburg revealed truck rolling downhill in promo video, Milton got 4 years |
Luckin Coffee | 2020 | Jenny Qian | China | 0.3 | Fabricated 310 million dollars in sales, delisted from Nasdaq |
Satyam Computer Services | 2009 | Ramalinga Raju | India | 1.5 | Chairman confessed to inflating cash balance by 1 billion, India's largest fraud |
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