Top+10+Nastiest+Ponzi+Schemes

=Top 10 Nastiest Ponzi Schemes = = =
 * 10. The Fraudulent Feminist **



In 1880, Boston Ponzian Sarah Howe promised women 8% interest on a “Ladies [|Deposit].” She said it was only for women, selling an implicit assumption of safety. She took the money and ran. Nastiness Factor: Bad. Way to break the sisterhood of trust, Sarah.


 * 9. The Haiti Haters **

 

Ponzi schemes popped up all over Haiti in the early 2000′s. These schemes sold themselves as government-backed “cooperatives.” They ran mainstream-sounding ads, some of which featured Haitian pop stars. As a result, people felt safe [|investing] more than $240 million–60% of Haitian GDP in 2001–into the schemes, which ended up being a massive swindle. Nastiness Factor: Bad. Haiti is already one of the poorest countries in the world. People there eat mud cakes when times get bad. Cheating them out of their meager savings is sick; alas, it also appears to be systemic.


 * 8. The Scientologist Snake **



Earthlink co-founder and Scientology minister Reed Slatkin posed as a brilliant [|investment advisor] for A-list Hollywood residents and corporate bosses. Working out of his garage, Slatkin cheated the rich and famous out of roughly $593 million, creating fake statements referring back to fake [|brokerage firms] to prove his mettle. He fed the Church of Scientology with millions of his winnings. In 2000, the SEC caught wind that Slatkin wasn’t licensed, and busted the scheme. Nastiness Factor:Mild. Cheating the rich and famous usually results in fewer [|bankruptcies] than, say, misling seniors out of their retirement funds.


 * 7. The Lottery Uprising **



When Albania was moving out from behind the Iron Curtain in the mid-1990s, a powerful government and environment of questionable ethics resulted in a [|financial system] dominated by pyramid schemes. The government endorsed various Ponzis, which robbed the majority of the population and netted more than $1 billion in losses. Albanians rioted and overthrew the government.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. Don’t government officials realize that endorsing Ponzi schemes might get them overthrown?


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">6. The Costa Rica Crooks **



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Three Costa Rican brothers, Enrique, Osvaldo and Freddy Villalobos, defrauded clients–mostly American and Canadian retirees–out of $400 million in a 20-odd-year unregulated loan scheme that started in the late 1980s. They promised [|interest rates] of 3% per month on a minimum investment of $10,000. Villalobos moved money through shell companies before paying investors. Its staying power had to do with the fact that margins were low, the brothers were disciplined, and the outfit just barely skirted past laws. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor:Mild. The size of the operation gives it a place on this list, but the brothers also had real [|assets] to back them up. It’s Ponzi Lite, but that doesn’t ease the burden on people who lost everything.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">5. The Biblical Bilker **



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">In fraud-rich Florida, the Greater Ministries International church used Bible-speak to cheat its flock out of $500 million. Starting in the early 1990s, the church, led by gun-toting minister Gerald Payne, offered worshippers [|investments] in gold coins. Payne then created an investment plan that would “[|double the ‘blessings’] that people invested” by funneling money towards the church’s fake precious metals investments. According to the [|Anti-Defamation League,] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Payne said that God had modernized the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and asked him to share the secret. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">$500 million later, the Feds caught Payne, but most [|investors] never got their money back. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Disgusting. Anyone who uses holy speak to bilk people out of their retirement savings is disgusting, plain and simple.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">4. The Boy Band Bandit **



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Beginning in the late 1980s, Lou Pearlman, Art Garfunkel’s cousin and former manager of ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, offered attractive returns through his [|FDIC-insured] Trans Continental Savings Program. The scheme was neither a savings and loan nor FDIC-approved, but that didn’t stop Pearlman from bilking investors out of nearly $500 million, with which he planned on [|funding] three MTV shows and an entertainment complex. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. Pearlman was already a multimillionaire. The fact that he became a compulsive criminal after that means he should sit in a cell for a very long time.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">3. The Retiree Plunderer **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Mexican resort owner Michael Eugene Kelly schemed retirees and senior citizens out of $428 million. He offered them timeshare [|investments] in Cancun hotels that he called “Universal Leases.” The timeshares came with rental agreements promising investors a nice fixed rate of return. Most of his victims used their retirement savings, thinking they would get solid, low-risk returns. The [|SEC says] that “more than $136 million of the [|funds] invested (came) from IRA accounts.” Kelly, meanwhile, bought himself a private jet, racetrack, and four yachts.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Disgusting. Defrauding senior citizens out of their retirement savings is just about as low as you can go.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">2. Madman Madoff **



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bernard Madoff’s scam is still unfolding. The facts as we know them now are that Madoff spent decades building the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, bilking nonprofits, famous people, funds, banks, and countless others out of $50 billion. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. The man single-handedly destroyed charities, life savings, and other organizations yet to be named. The amount of money involved earns him a spot just below Charles Ponzi himself.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 150%;">1. The Namesake **



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">The King of Get Rich Quick, Charles Ponzi became a millionaire in six months by promising investors 50% return in 45 days on international postal coupon investments. He earned $15 million, which in 1920s terms was serious money. After Ponzi was caught, investors only received $5 million back. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nastiness Factor: Mythical. This ancestor of fraudulent men passed his name on to the many schemes that would follow his own. His legacy, and his scheme, are forever memorialized, earning them a unique Nastiness Factor label.

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