Crime is an interesting topic to study because the mindset of criminals is often so different from the way we normally think, which is why compiling the list of 10 high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America was quite fun.
White collar crime is different from the normal crime cases you read about, which are usually murder because of endless Law & Order marathons. White collar crime is a non-violent crime that’s financially driven and often committed by powerful people, like business or government officials. Edwin Sutherland, a sociologist, defines it as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” This means, for example, if the CEO of a company that you invested in is stealing your money, it’s a white collar crime as opposed to being robbed.
Copyright: olegdudko / 123RF Stock Photo
Greed has driven many people to commit horrible acts, and these are no different. While there’s no violence involved, the victims do suffer. This isn’t American Psycho, but the mindset is likely somewhat similar to Patrick Bateman and his friends. Everyone wants to be rich and successful, and some go to any means necessary to get there. Fortunately, when you realize large sums of money are missing, you know exactly who to blame. It’s not exactly an easy crime to get away with all the time.
In this list, we will rank the 10 high profile white collar criminals in terms of the prison sentence they received, which correlates directly to the severity of their crimes in the eyes of the law. For other stories about people losing large sums of money, take a look at the 11 Biggest Financial Scandals in History.
Click on Next, though, if you want to know about the 10 high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America.
10 Jack Abramoff
Prison sentence: 6 years
Before he was convicted for financial crimes, he was a lobbyist. To some, being a lobbyist is a crime itself. He confessed to his crimes in 2006, pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion. He also admitted to cheating a casino for around $85 million. Additionally, he was guilty of bribing Republican Ohio Representative Bob Ney.
9. Dennis Kozlowski
Prison sentence: 8 years
We are continuing our list of high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America with Kozlowski that was the CEO of Tyco International, a manufacturing company based in Sweden. It became entangled in a $150 million scandal in 2002 when the CEO and CFO were selling unauthorized Tyco stocks for years to finance their extravagant lifestyles.
8. Charles Ponzi
Prison sentence: 14 years
If you’ve heard the term “Ponzi scheme” before, this is where it came from. Charles Ponzi would buy discounted postage coupons from Canada and other countries and then sell them full price in the US. He would pay his old investors with money from new investors in order to amass a large sum of money. The law caught up to him in 1910.
7 John Rigas
Prison sentence: 15 years
John Rigas was the co-founder of Adelphia Communications, one of the largest cable TV companies in the US. He, along with his two sons, managed to hide $2.3 billion worth of debt and false earnings. He then went ahead to spend millions of dollars worth of corporate funding in personal expenses. In 2003 he was convicted of fraud and brought to justice.
6. Martin Frankel
Prison sentence: 16 years
Martin, next on our list of high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America, was accused of embezzling money from several insurance companies throughout the midwest in 2004. The amount is disputed to be from $200 million to $1 billion. This was not his first offense, though, as he had previously been barred from trading stock following a similar incident in Ohio.
5. Allen Stanford
Prison sentence: 20 years
Stanford used his reputation to sell certificates of deposit to investors through his organization, the Stanford International Bank. The certificates of deposit never returned the amount promised. He embezzled an estimated $8 billion.
4. Samuel Israel III and Daniel Marino
Prison sentences: 22 and 20 years, respectively
These two were behind the Bayou Group. In 1996 they set up Bayou Hedge Funds and reeled in $300 million from investors with the promise of $7.1 billion in return. That never happened, though, as they used the money for their own personal use. This puts them fairly high up on our list of 10 high profile white collar criminals.
3. Jeffrey Skilling
Prison sentence: 24 years
Next in line on our list of high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America is the former CEO of Enron, the seventh largest company in America back in the day. This success, however, was achieved through a series of accounting loopholes, especially purpose entities and false profit reporting. The beginning of the end was an article published in 2001 by Bethany McLean. After that point, the company was under strict scrutiny and finally filed for bankruptcy.
2. Bernard Ebbers
Prison sentence: 25 years
Ebbers was the CEO of WorldCom, a very promising telecommunications company. Things eventually folded since most of the business was built on loan. He was accused of embezzling $11 billion. This was known as the biggest white collar crime in America until the person in our top spot.
1. Bernie Madoff
Prison sentence: 150 years
No white collar criminal list would be complete without Bernie Madoff. He essentially revitalized the old Ponzi scheme and put it to effective use. He began in the 1970s and managed to pull it off until 2008 when his unlawfully amassed wealth ran low and he could no longer pay his investors.
That concludes our list of 10 high profile white collar criminals and their crime cases in America!
