5 modern financial scams

Excessive greediness and scams made many companies bankrupt. Frauds are not tired of scamming honest and naive people; some criminal even manage to fool worlds’ financial establishment. Although, in most cases the result of scams is a jail. In this article I’m going to tell you about the most scandalous scams and remind that anyone of us can get into a financial trap.

1. French fraud Christophe Rocancourt, who pretended to be a member of Rockefeller family and Bill Clinton’s friend, arranged several scams that brought him $40 million. He deluded American moneybags introducing himself as a well-known financier or film producer and swindled money of them. In 2000 Christophe was arrested, but he managed to escape to Canada. In March of 2002 Canadian government extradited the fugitive to the United States. At the court he was pleaded of charges of bribery, theft, smuggling, fraud, grand larceny and perjury.

2. Société Générale Bank trader Gerome Kerviel started secretly trading in 2005. According to various sources, the French controlled 50 billion Euro. During that period Gerome caused to bank $8 billion damage. Kerviel himself stated that he started trading to achieve great results, show them to the boss and get bonuses. But, actually, he just wanted to steal that money. At the court Kerviel was pleaded of charges of fraud and breach of trust.

3. Everyone knows the name of Bernard Madoff. “Forbes” calls him the robber of the century. Madoff Securities Company founded over 40 years ago brought profit to its clients. But, in the end, the company that appeared to be a financial pyramid lost $50 billion. The list of Madoff’s victims includes many American and international banks and funds such as BNP Paribas, HSBC, Nomura Holdings and even Steven Spielberg.

4. One of the most scandalous scams in the history of the USA was organized by Bernard Ebbers, head of the WorldCom Company. Ebbers did his best to expand his business. In the beginning of the 90’s his company made more than 60 takeovers.

Problems appeared in 2000 when Ebbers had debts and started selling his property. After WorldCom stopped company takeovers, it just got bankrupt. Ebebrs couldn’t save the company, and in 2002 he resigned. Afterwards, his financial machinations were revealed.

Some time later Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in jail.  

5. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Schwartz were top-managers of Bermuda company Tyco Industrial. These two men managed to turn the company into international conglomerate. But their scandalous fame Kozlowski and his partner got thank to excessive expenses. With the help of his financial director Shwartz, Kozlowski spent about $600 million. Everyone was envy when looking at these guys: they threw parties on islands, bought exclusive clothes and jewelries in fashionable boutiques. Moreover, they men spent money of the company to buy paintings of the world-known painters.

The real lie of the land was revealed when companions started getting rid of their stocks. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Schwartz were sentenced to 25 years in jail.