Everybody loves it when a bad guy makes good. Everybody loves it even more when the bad guy gets caught. But, what does everybody love more than both of those things? Easy: they love to know where the bad guy went wrong in history so they don’t make the same wrong moves.
Throughout history there have been great scammers. Swindlers and cheats! You can’t help listening to their smooth talk and you can’t help getting drawn into their net! The stock market has loads of swindlers! Here are the top ones from the 1980s and the 1990s, the ones that will go down in history.
There’s 15-year-old Barry Minkow that diddled the investors in his carpet-cleaning company out of $100 million. He made a few bucks on the way, and even ended up driving his flash cars and cracking open the champagne. His company was publically launched on the NASDAQ. But, he hit rock bottom and got lumbered with $26 million to pay back and 25 years in prison.
Michael Milken, the ‘Junk Bond King’ is in the list too; the guy that used insider-dealing to make a mint. Is he still providing investment consultancy? The SEC thought he might in February this year.
Both guys bought their repentance when they were let out of prison. Minkow became an evangelic preacher and saved a few sinners along the way, probably. Milken invested in cancer research. Makes you wonder what will happen to Madoff when he gets let out (if he does after getting 150 years!).
This is a summary of an article that was originally published in ToTheTick.