- Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (born June 26, 1963) is a Russian businessman, a former Komsomol activist who became one of Russia's oligarchs at a very early age. He was later convicted for fraud and tax evasion and received a 9-year sentence. As of 2004, Khodorkovsky was the wealthiest man in Russia, and was the 16th wealthiest man in the world, …
- Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (born Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, April 12, 1942) is a former Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa and current deputy president of the governing political party, the African National Congress (ANC). A popular figure even across political divides, he gained notoriety after his financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud, leading to Zuma's dismissal as deputy president in June 2005.
- Kevin Trudeau
Kevin Mark Trudeau (born February 6 1963) is an American author, pool player, salesman and alternative medicine advocate. He is known for a number of television infomercials selling his products, and for several books, including the controversial "Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About". Trudeau has had numerous interactions with the U.S. judicial system, including multiple fines and a larceny conviction., …
- Bernard Ebbers
Bernard John "Bernie" Ebbers (born August 27, 1941 in Edmonton, Alberta), is a Canadian-born businessman. He co-founded the telecommunications company WorldCom and is a former chief executive officer of that company. In 2005, he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the largest (to date) accounting scandal in United States history, as a result of WorldCom's false financial reporting, and subsequent $180-billion loss to investors.
- Paul Smith
Paul Smith (born 1968 in Sydney) is an Australian actor, most known for his role as the original Simon in the TV sitcom "Hey Dad...!", and as Steve in children's series "The Henderson Kids". His last major role was in the Australian television movie "The Private War of Lucinda Smith" in 1990. After disappearing from the acting scene, he moved to Hobart, and managed a computer company called DAP Computers.
- Stephen Barrett
Stephen J. Barrett, M.D. (born 1933), is a retired American psychiatrist and author best known as a co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He runs a number of websites dealing with what he calls quackery and health fraud. He says that he bases his writings on consumer protection, medical ethics, and scientific skepticism. Barrett's critics have accused him of bias, lack of objectivity, …
- Uri Geller
Uri Geller is an Israeli-British performer and celebrity famous for his claimed psychic powers. Geller rose to fame after performing a series of televised performances which he said were paranormal demonstrations of psychokinesis, dowsing and telepathy. His performance included bending spoons, describing hidden drawings, and making watches appear to stop or run faster. Geller says he performs these feats through willpower and the strength of his mind.
- Schabir Shaik
Schabir Shaik is a South African businessman from the Berea, Durban, who rose to prominence due to his close association with South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma. On 2 June 2005, he was found guilty of corruption and fraud, which also led to the dismissal of Zuma two weeks later.
- Frank Abagnale
Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is a former cheque forger and impostor for five years in the 1960s. Currently he runs Abagnale and Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company. His life story provided the inspiration for the feature film "Catch Me if You Can", nominally based on his ghostwritten biography of the same name. Over five years he worked under no fewer than eight identities (though he used many more to cash checks), …
- Charles Keating
Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. (born December 4, 1923 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American felon convicted of fraud in the savings and loan scandal of 1989. Prior to his arrest, he was a lawyer, a banker, and he was noted as a vehement anti-pornography campaigner. A conservative Roman Catholic, Keating was active in the Republican Party. His brother, William J. Keating, was a Republican Congressman from Ohio.
- George Noory
While still a teenager, George joined NICAP, the UFO organization that was a precursor to today's MUFON. George immersed himself in the field, "so much so that I decided I wanted to go into broadcasting in order to do unusual stories in the paranormal and stories that the mainstream media didn't want to touch," he told After Dark.
- Kobi Alexander
Jacob "Kobi" Alexander is the former CEO of Massachusetts-based Comverse Technology. Alexander founded Comverse Technology (NASDAQ: CMVT) in 1982 and built it up from a 3-person Israeli startup to employing over 6,000, becoming the leading provider of software and systems for telecommunication companies worldwide. Comverse’s success lead to its inclusion in the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices.
- Barry Minkow
Barry Minkow (born March 17 1967) is an American religious leader and ex-convict. As a young teenager Minkow was a fraudulent entrepreneur who managed to present the front of a successful businessman for a number of years during the 1980s. He was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but served only seven years. During his time in prison, Minkow became involved in Christian ministry, which continued after his probationary release from prison in April 1995.
- Ashida Kim
Ashida Kim is a Florida-based, controversial American martial arts teacher and author, best known for his books on ninjitsu training.
- David Rakoff
Born and raised in Canada, David Rakoff is the author of the book Fraud (Doubleday hardcover; Broadway paperback). A regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Outside, and Public Radio International's This American Life , his writing has also appeared in GQ, Salon, Details, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Wired, New York Magazine , and The New York Observer, among others.
- Peter Foster
Peter Foster (born 26 September 1962) is an Australian conman and convicted criminal. He has been nicknamed and referred to himself as the "human headline" after his involvement in helping Cherie Blair, wife of United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair buy properties in Bristol. He had already been convicted on numerous occasions for frauds involving weight loss products and property transactions.
- Tom Coughlin
Thomas M. "Tom" Coughlin is a former vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and confidant of founder Sam Walton. He began his career with the retailer in 1978 in the company’s security division, and was named vice chairman of Wal-Mart and elected to the Wal-Mart Board of Directors in April of 2003. He stepped down December 6, 2004. As of July 2005, he is the subject of a United States Department of Justice investigation, as well as a lawsuit by Wal-Mart, …
- Larry Thompson
Larry Thompson was a deputy Attorney General of the United States under United States President George W. Bush until August of 2003. From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the northern District of Georgia and led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. The "New York Times" describes him as "a moderate" who is "respected by both Democrats and Republicans." While Deputy Attorney General, …
- Adam Kidan
Adam Kidan is a former business associate of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who partnered with Abramoff in the purchase of SunCruz Casinos. On December 15, 2005, Kidan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud in connection with these business dealings. He surrendered to federal authorities at Fort Dix Federal Penetentiary, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, on October 23, 2006 to begin serving a five-year, 10-month jail term.
- Antoin Rezko
Antoin "Tony" Rezko is an Illinois restaurant and real estate developer currently facing federal charges of attempted extortion, money laundering, and fraud. Rezko was born in 1955 in Aleppo, Syria to a Christian family. After graduating from high school there, Rezko moved to Chicago and earned an engineering and construction degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Rezko then moved into a career as a real estate developer.
- Tony Yengeni
Tony Sithembiso Yengeni (11 October 1954) is a South African politician. He was an anti-Apartheid activist and joined the ANC in 1976 and later its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. He has served as member of the South African parliament for the ruling ANC (including as Chief Whip). In 2003, he was found guilty of fraud in a case linked the ongoing corruption investigation into the former South African vice-president, Jacob Zuma.
- John Forbes
John B. Forbes (born 1795?) was an architect in Cheltenham. He designed the Pittville Pump Room for Joseph Pitt (1825-1830) and St Paul's Church (1829-1831). In 1835 he was convicted of forgery, having attempted to get out of financial difficulties by fraud: a sentence of transportation was commuted to a short prison term, but his architectural career was ended.
- David Duncan
David Duncan (born 1960), is the United States government's star witness in the Arthur Andersen trial. He has said fears over interpretation prompted him to order the shredding of documents relating to Enron. He was an Andersen employee for 20 years, who was in charge of the Enron account since 1997, for which he was paid over $1 million. He was fired from Andersen in January 2002 and charged with aiding in Enron's fraudulent bookkeeping.
- Jim Guy Tucker
James "Jim" Guy Tucker, Jr. (born June 12 1943) is a former governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas. Tucker resigned the governorship on July 16, 1996, after his conviction for fraud during the Whitewater scandal although the conviction was not directly related to that investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton's real estate and related business dealings.
- Hilary Squires
Hilary Gwyn Squires is a retired South African judge and barrister, who was brought in to preside over the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in Durban, South Africa, so as not to tie up legal proceedings elsewhere while the trial proceeded. Squires was born in South Africa in 1933 and was educated at Rhodes Preparatory School and the University of Cape Town. He left South Africa in 1956 for Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. He first practiced in Bulawayo and then in Salisbury.
- Walter Forbes
Walter Forbes (born 1942/43) is an American business manager and Federal prisoner. He was convicted of fraud for actions he took in the 1990s as chairman of Cendant Corporation; on 2007 January 17 was sentenced to over 12 years in prison, and ordered to make restitution amounting to $3.28 billion.
- Jim McDougal
James B. (Jim) McDougal, a native of White County, Arkansas, and his wife, Susan McDougal (the former Susan Carol Hendley), were financial partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the real estate venture that led to the Whitewater political scandal of the 1990s. Starting in 1982, McDougal operated Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan. On April 14, 1997, McDougal was convicted of eighteen felony counts of fraud and conspiracy charges.
- Mel Reynolds
Melvin Jay "Mel" Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Illinois. Reynolds was born in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and he graduated from University of Illinois, Harvard University, and Oxford University. An academic achiever, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Lincoln College in the University of Oxford.
- Harris Black
Harris Black is a convicted fraudster from Canada.
- Sherry Freebery
Sherry Freebery is the former chief administrative officer of New Castle County, Delaware. She and former County Executive Thomas P. Gordon were indicted on fraud and racketeering charges. Freebery, a Democrat, denied all charges and claimed her prosecution was politically motivated and connected to the controversy surrounding the Congressional investigation into the dismissals of U.S. attorneys, …
- John Cronin
John Cronin (b. July 18, 1971) is a repeat-offence Scottish convict who is considered by British law enforcement authorities to be the UK's first convicted felon to be tracked by satellite. Most recently imprisoned on fraud charges on August 23, 2003, he is infamous for a string of sex offences against women, most notably against "Judy X", a Tory Party worker in May 1992.
- Paul van Buitenen
Paul van Buitenen (born 28 May, 1957 in Breda) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Netherlands and a former European civil servant. He was a Dutch assistant-auditor in the European Commission’s Financial Control Directorate becoming the whistleblower who first drew the attention of a Member of the European Parliament to the irregularities, fraud and mismanagement within the Commission in 1998.
- Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner (born July 16, 1928) is an English novelist and art historian born in Herne Hill, a suburb of London. <br /> Brookner's father, Newson Bruckner, was a Polish immigrant, and her mother, Maude Schiska, was a singer whose father had emigrated from Poland and founded a tobacco factory. Maude changed the family's surname to Brookner due to anti-German sentiment in England.
- Alexander Yakovlev
Alexander Yakovlev was a long-serving tenured member of the United Nations procurement department (since 1985). He was involved in the oil-for-food scandal and had other allegations of impropriety. He is accused by the investigators of taking nearly $1 million in bribes, which also includes alleged illicit dealings with Compass Group PLC's subsidiary Eurest Support Services (ESS) and its terminated CEO Peter R. Harris and senior executive Andy Seiwert.
- Yevgeny Adamov
Evgeny Adamov (Yevgeny Adamov or Yevgeniy Adamov;) was the head of the Russian atomic energy ministry, MinAtom. He was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin in 1998 and ousted by President Vladimir Putin in 2001. Adamov, a nuclear physicist, then joined the Dollezhal Institute. In 2005, he was arrested in Bern, Switzerland, on fraud charges. The arrest was made at the request of the United States.
- Anna Ayala
Anna Ayala (born circa 1965) is an American woman who is notorious for bringing a fraudulent tort lawsuit against a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, California, which inflicted more than US$2.5 million in losses for the corporation, leading to a felony charge of attempted grand larceny against her. Ayala pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2005, and was sentenced to nine years in prison on January 18, 2006.
- Allan Boesak
Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak (23 February 1945 -) is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and was a politician and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud in 1999 but was re-instated as a cleric in late 2004.
- Kevin V. Ryan
Kevin V. Ryan is a former United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. His nomination was recommended by Joseph P. Russoniello, a previous holder of the same office. President George W. Bush nominated Ryan on May 15, 2002 and confirmed by the United States Senate in July 2002. Ryan is part of the ongoing controversy over the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Ryan announced his resignation in January 2007.
- Richard C. Breeden
Richard C. Breeden was born in 1949. During his professional career he has been a law school instructor, a practicing lawyer, an economics and policy advisor to vice President George H.W. Bush (and later President George H.W. Bush), Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a senior partner of an accounting firm, CEO of a public company and head of his own turnaround and workouts firm.
- Kimberly Rogers
Kimberly Rogers was a Canadian woman, whose death in 2001 while under house arrest for welfare fraud caused extensive controversy around Ontario Works, the Ontario government's welfare system, leading to an inquest which recommended significant changes to the system. A resident of Sudbury, Ontario, Rogers, who was unable to work full-time due to health issues, was receiving standard Ontario welfare benefits of $520 per month, while paying $450 per month in rent.