I'm sure you guys must have heard the saying "The rich get richer". That might just be because the rich get greedier. It's surprising how most of these people who have more money than the average person reading this, still don't think they have enough money to make them happy.
Most, acquired billions of dollars legitimately and then greed help them acquire more billions illegally. They go to the extent of bribery, insider trading, tax evasion and flat out cheating of unsuspecting victims to illegally inflate there bank accounts. Let's take a look at some of them below:
1. Eike Batista
This guy was once Brazil's richest man with a networth of $30 billion. A mining, oil and gas exploration tycoon. He is the chairman of Brazilian conglomerate EBX Group .
But as it usually happens to the filthy rich, Batista didn't think he had enough money to make him happy.
He was charged with bribery and corruption along with Rio de Janeiro governor, Sergio Cabral who allegedly took millions of dollars from the former billionaire to help facilitate graft and hide money by creating offshore shell firms for Batista.
In an emailed statement, prosecutors said money was paid to ex-Rio de Janeiro Governor, Sergio Cabral so that Batista's enterprises would win lucrative government contracts.
Under Brazilian laws, Mr Batista would have been sent to a special prison wing if he had a university degree. But as he dropped out before finishing his engineering degree in Germany, he is serving time in an ordinary cell with six other inmates at the Bangu penitentiary. Mr Cabral is also in Bangu jail.
2. Allan Stanford
This guy was worth 2.2 billion. He ran one of the biggest ponzi schemes and stole money from everyone he could contact. His Standard Financial group stole more than $7 billion and left them flat broke!
He was sentenced to 110 years in prison for his crimes. Prosecutors wanted him to get 200 years but what's the need?
He is scheduled to be released in 2105.
3. Chey Tey-Won
This guy once was worth $2.5 billion. He wasn't very smart though. Everything was doing well until he visited a fortune teller one day. After the meeting, Tae-Won decided to the man into his company and made him asset manager. Nobody knew what Tae-Won was expecting and the fortune teller didn't tell him what he was going to do soon would be very foolish.
Tae-Won ran away with $50 million of his company's money and his investors weren't happy. China looked everywhere for him and when they found him, they gave him four years in prison for his crime. Nobody got ant money back.
4. Bernie Ebbers
This guy is currently an inmate at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana. He is doing a thirty year sentence for publishing false financial documents for his company WorldCam. The report was off by more than $11 billion and quickly caught the eyes of authorities, who then started looking into it.
In 2005 it was one of the biggest accounts scandals in United States history. The company was already under suspicion of fraud and conspiracy when they released the report and that was the final straw.
5.Raj Rajaratnam
This guy was owned a hedge fund company called Galleon group. He was worth $2 billion. The FBI caught up with him in 2009 and he was charged with 14 crimes, including insider trading and fraud. In 2011, he was sentenced to eleven years in prison.
He is scheduled to be released in 2021. He won't have anything to look forward to upon release because all of his money is now gone.
6. Bernie Madoff
What a fraudster! This guy once pulled off one of the biggest ponzi schemes in american history.
Madoff founded the Wall Street firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and was the chairman until his arrest on december, 11, 2008.
The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on wall street.
On the 10th of December, 2008, Madoff's sons told FBI that their father's firm was "one big lie". They said their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive ponzi scheme.
On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies and admitted he turned his wealth management business into a massive ponzi scheme. The investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars.
Madoff told the authorities he started the ponzi scheme in the early 1990s but federal investigators believed he started way back in the 1980s. Estimated actual losses to investors was $18 billion.
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison on June 12, 2009.
7. Joseph Lau
This guy tried to pay off some officials nearly two million dollars for several land deals. The problem was, he approached the wrong people and was called out publically for his crimes. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and he had to completely give up his entire company.
What he thought was going to help him push his company ended up the opposite. He was once worth $8.4 billion and now he'll have nothing.
8. Curt Johnson
This guy is worth about $3 billion but is worth far less in self dignity.
He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his step daughter from the time she was just twelve years old until she was fifteen. He even admitted the crimes to his therapist.
His court case delayed severally and dragged on for nearly three years. Finally, when neither the victim nor the therapist would testify, he was charged with misdemeanors instead of felonies. He served three months in jail and was fined $6,000. He originally was facing forty years in prison. Did money have anything to do with those that didn’t want to testify? We can only speculate.
9. Wong Kwong You
In 2006 this guy was known as the richest man in China. In such a populous country, that is a great achievement. He made his money by becoming the king of the electronics retail stores. He was once worth about $1.5 billion.
It was found that his money was being made by insider trading, he tried to bribe people with $750,000 but they refused and he got 14 years in prison. He started his sentence in 2010 and is till a billionaire due to the continued success of his stores.
10. Thomas and Raymond Kwok
These two brothers and real estate tycoons are worth $16 billion. Owners of Sung Hung Kai properties.
In march 2012, Raymond and Thomas kwok were arrested on bribery charges. In march 2013, they pleaded not guilty to corruption charges that involved payments and loans to Hong Kong's former Chief Secretary for Administration, Rafael Hui. In December 2014, Raymond was cleared of all charges while Thomas was convicted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
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