Madoff, Enron, WorldCom … Where Does Sam Bankman-Fried Stand in the Pantheon of Financial Fraud?
It's up to you to judge ...
The FTX fiasco has been in the news ever since Sam Bankman-Fried's paper empire built on lies collapsed on November 11, 2022. While SBF is already leading a rehabilitation campaign to try to convince people that he is not a fraudster, but simply a careless person who was overtaken by the success of his company in the middle of a huge speculative bubble, it seems interesting to me to look at the great financial scandals of the last twenty years to see where SBF ranks.
In this inglorious pantheon of financial frauds, I will leave it to you to decide where you will place SBF. But after reading the reminder of the five biggest swindlers in this sector since 2000, you will be able to give me your opinion in a more informed manner in the comments.
Bernard Madoff - Sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison
Thanks to Bernard Madoff, the whole world has become familiar with the Ponzi scheme, a fraudulent financial arrangement that consists in paying existing investors with the money of new investors. Such a scheme always ends up collapsing. “Bernie,” as he was known on Wall Street, allegedly lost his clients $65 billion. He died in prison, aged 82, in April 2021.
https://thepowerofknowledge.xyz/how-charles-ponzi-invented-a-system-in-1920-that-has-inspired-fraudsters-throughout-history-950f39ba1ea4
Elizabeth Holmes - Theranos - Sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in prison
This 38-year-old Harvard-educated woman had succeeded in making many personalities believe, including her compatriot, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, that she had found the miracle solution to revolutionize blood analysis. Alas, it was bogus. The courts accused her of having lied to her investors and, more seriously, of having endangered the lives of hundreds of people.
https://ssaurel.medium.com/symbol-of-the-excesses-of-the-mantra-fake-it-till-you-make-it-the-founder-of-theranos-elizabeth-2bb249a9cea3
Bernard Ebbers - WorldCom - Sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in prison
To hide the damage of the Internet bubble explosion on his telecommunications company, the CEO artificially inflated his accounts by 11 billion dollars between 2000 and 2002. In addition to his criminal conviction, the American justice system forced him to bequeath his fortune to the damaged shareholders. The remains of the company were bought by Verizon. The Canadian Bernard Ebbers died at his home in February 2020, at the age of 78.
Jeffrey Skilling - Enron - Sentence in 2006 to 24 years in prison
Along with the founder of this energy brokerage group, Kenneth Lay, the boss of what was then the eighth-largest American company, now 69 years old, was an ace at making up accounts. The bankruptcy of Enron, burdened by 40 billion dollars of debts, was so traumatic that it is taught in all business schools.
Dennis Kozlowski - Tyco International - Sentenced in 2005 to 8 years and 4 months in prison
The former CEO of this industrial conglomerate active, among other things, in fire alarm and electronic surveillance systems or valves for steam generators was convicted of embezzling 600 million dollars from his company's coffers, notably for personal use, between 1999 and 2001. Now 76 years old, he was released in 2014.
Some reading
Unpopular Opinion: If You Are a Bitcoiner, You Can Say Thank You to SBF, Do Kwon, or Alex Mashinsky. All of these crooks help shed light on why only the Bitcoin revolution really matters in the future.
FTX’s Fall Whets Goldman Sachs’ Appetite for Cryptocurrencies. The collapse of crypto values is a boon for the American giant, which wants to spend “tens of millions of dollars” on acquisitions.
The 3 Biggest Reasons Why Bitcoin Will Become the Standard for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Bitcoin’s success in the future is inevitable.
Numbers Don’t Lie — The ECB Is the Weakest Link in European Power. The structural weakness of European demand is a major cause of investment weakness.
While Apple Will Make a Movie, Amazon Will Produce a TV Series About the FTX/Sam-Bankman Fried Scandal. These two productions are already announced as huge successes of 2023.