Worst Swindlers of All Time
Charles Ponzi invented the “Ponzi scheme.” Wikimedia Commons
Financial fraud is a serious crime that often comes with massive fines and lengthy jail sentences.
But even the prospect of being locked up for a long time doesn’t deter some people from swindling investors for their own personal gain.
These are the biggest con artists of all time.
31. “Count” Victor Lustig
Country: France
Company: N/A
Type of business: N/A
Fraud amount: $2 million
Bottom Line: “Count” Victor Lustig
“Count” Victor Lustig, known as “America’s greatest con man,” was a highly skilled career criminal who instigated scams across Europe and the United States during the early 20th century.
In the mid-1920s, he forged official papers that stated he had the right to sell Paris’s Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. He managed to find two scrap metal dealers who bribed him the equivalent of $2 million in today’s money to get the (fake) contract.
Lustig then escaped to the U.S. to continue swindling innocent people out of their cash.
30. Billy McFarland
Country: United States
Company: Fyre Media
Type of business: Media booking service
Fraud amount: $27.4 million
Bottom Line: Billy McFarland
Billy McFarland promised the luxury festival of a lifetime. But the Fyre Festival, due to take place in the Bahamas in April and May 2017, was a disaster: unhygienic accommodations, a shortage of food, water, and other essentials, and a distinct lack of A-list influencers.
In 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and a charge of making false statements. He was ordered to pay back more than $26 million to those he defrauded and jailed for six years in federal prison.