Investor Reviews

Ran a $8 million Ponzi scheme promising insured, high, fast returns from classic 'prime bank' instruments — standby letters of credit, medium-term notes, high-yield bonds — then spent investor money on cruises, gambling, and a luxury car, and used a bankruptcy filing to hide it. Sentenced to 4.5 years.

Celsius founder who pleaded guilty to commodities and securities fraud and was sentenced to 12 years, having told customers their crypto was "safer than a bank" while manipulating his own token and betting their deposits.

Financier who ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme through his offshore Antigua bank, selling 'safe,' high-yield certificates of deposit while secretly funneling depositors' money into his own businesses and lifestyle. Convicted at trial and sentenced to 110 years.

Wall Street insider from a wealthy finance family who defrauded investors of over $38 million with entirely fictitious private-equity investments — fake funds, fake financiers, fake email addresses — promising 'nearly riskless' 15-20% returns. Pleaded guilty; 4 years.

Detroit hedge-fund owner who pleaded guilty to wire fraud for a scheme that took more than $39 million from investors in his EIA All Weather Alpha Fund. Sentenced to 100 months in federal prison.

Former Jay Peak owner who defrauded roughly 169 immigrant investors of about $85 million raised through the EB-5 visa program for a Vermont biotech facility a judge called a 'ghost.' Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 5 years.

French NFT developer who marketed the 'Mutant Ape Planet' collection with promised rewards and benefits designed to inflate demand, then never delivered — diverting millions in proceeds for personal use. Pleaded guilty and agreed to $1.4 million in forfeiture.

One of history's most notorious serial fraudsters — built the 1980s ZZZZ Best stock fraud, reinvented himself as a pastor and 'fraud investigator,' then pleaded guilty to a stock-manipulation scheme and to embezzling more than $3 million from his own congregation.

Minted the 'UndeadApes' and 'Undead Lady Apes' NFT collections on the Solana blockchain, defrauded investors, and laundered proceeds through the Solana and Ethereum blockchains. Convicted by a federal jury.

Architect of the largest Ponzi scheme in history — roughly $65 billion in fabricated account value. Pleaded guilty to 11 felonies in 2009, sentenced to 150 years, and died in federal prison in 2021.

Archegos founder convicted of racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, and market manipulation, and sentenced to 18 years with more than $9 billion in restitution after his fund's 2021 collapse inflicted billions in bank losses.

Fort Worth oil-and-gas operator who pleaded guilty to running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme — taking investor money to 'buy leases,' faking oil-production reports, and paying old investors with new money. Sentenced to 17.5 years, $16M restitution.

Fyre Festival founder who used fake documents and fabricated financials to defraud more than 80 investors of over $24 million in Fyre Media, plus a ticket-vendor scheme. Pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was sentenced to 6 years.

SafeMoon CEO convicted by a jury of securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for looting the crypto token's liquidity pool, and sentenced to 100 months with $7.5 million in forfeiture.

North Carolina church treasurer who ran a roughly $1.5 million Ponzi scheme — defrauding real-estate investors, then fellow church parishioners, then a federal COVID-19 relief program. Sentenced to 33 months.

Founder of a Texas cryptocurrency-mining company who promised clients locked-in cheap electricity rates and specific mining machines running on their behalf — machines that in many cases were never purchased, powered on, or connected. Convicted by a federal jury on all counts.

Convicted at trial of defrauding former NBA stars Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons of $8 million — including telling Howard his money was buying the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, then spending it on a mansion, a Rolls-Royce, a Lamborghini, and Basquiat artwork. Sentenced to 151 months.

Texas man sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for a "meme stock" Ponzi scheme that took roughly $2.1 million from 19 friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Convicted by guilty plea.

Startup founder convicted of fraud for inventing millions of fake customers to induce JPMorgan Chase to buy Frank for $175 million; sentenced to 85 months with $287 million in restitution.

Two Oregon real-estate investment company owners sentenced to federal prison for a $17 million fraud that told investors their money would buy and renovate undervalued homes. Convicted by guilty plea.

Sold sports and Pokemon trading cards with fake grades falsely attributed to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), inflating common cards' value and defrauding buyers of more than $2 million. Curcio convicted at trial; Bondarchuk pleaded guilty.

Sentenced to 188 months — over 15 years — in federal prison for a Ponzi scheme run through Miami-based Peoples Equity Group, with investor losses exceeding $20 million. Convicted by guilty plea.

Promoter who pleaded guilty in a scheme that sold stock in Niyato Industries — a sham 'electric vehicle' company with no real operations — to about 140 investors, many of them elderly. He fled to Mexico and was extradited to face charges.

Sentenced to 20 years for laundering the proceeds of a $73.6 million 'pig butchering' cryptocurrency investment scam run from Cambodian scam centers. Pleaded guilty; now a fugitive after cutting off his ankle monitor.

Former Morgan Stanley advisor convicted of wire fraud and investment-adviser fraud for a scheme that steered NBA-player clients into life-insurance policies marked up more than 200%, costing three players a total of about $5 million.

Former UCLA decathlete who raised more than $45 million from investors by promising to finance cannabis vape-pen manufacturing companies with a supposed exclusive Chinese manufacturer relationship, backed by forged bank statements and purchase orders. Sentenced to 17.5 years.

Founded IcomTech, a purported cryptocurrency mining and trading platform that promised guaranteed daily returns and to double investors' money within six months — while conducting no real trading or mining. Primarily targeted working-class, Spanish-speaking investors with little crypto experience. Convicted and sentenced to over 10 years in federal prison.

Terraform Labs co-founder who pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 years over the $40 billion TerraUSD/Luna collapse — called by the sentencing judge "a fraud of epic generational scale."

Founder of EminiFX, a forex and crypto trading platform that promised more than 25,000 investors weekly returns of at least 5% from an artificial-intelligence trading system that didn't exist, defrauding them of over $248 million. Sentenced to 9 years.

Theranos founder convicted of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions and sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison, with a $452 million restitution order shared with her co-defendant.

Financial advisor to an oil-services contractor who helped launder proceeds of a scheme paying nearly $3 million in bribes to PetroEcuador officials, using shell companies and offshore accounts across four countries. Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Two operators of Global Forex Management convicted of a $30 million foreign-exchange fraud built on fabricated trading results; sentenced to 5 years and 4 years 7 months, with ~$30.8 million in restitution.

New York investment adviser sentenced to 4 years in prison for wire fraud after raising over $10.5 million on false claims of access to a private company's pre-IPO shares. He also consented to an SEC judgment with a permanent injunction and securities-industry bar.

Estonian founders of HashFlare, a purported crypto-mining service that sold $577 million in fake mining contracts backed by dashboards showing mining activity that never happened, plus a related $25 million fake-bank scheme. Pleaded guilty and forfeited over $400 million.

Co-ran Bordeaux Cellars, a roughly $99 million fine-wine Ponzi scheme that sold investors high-yield loans supposedly secured by rare wine — while the operation never controlled more than 217 bottles despite claiming to hold 25,000. Sentenced to 10 years.

Ran DC Solar, a mobile solar-generator leasing company that took in over $910 million from investors chasing lucrative tax credits, then stopped building the generators altogether and sold thousands that didn't exist. Sentenced to 30 years — the biggest fraud ever prosecuted in the Eastern District of California.

Self-styled trading guru 'The Bull' who admitted defrauding roughly 530 investors of about $20.9 million through Alpha Influence, an affinity scheme that promised outsized trading returns. Sentenced to 96 months.

Ran Mutual Benefits Corporation, a $1.25 billion viatical-settlement Ponzi scheme that sold more than 30,000 investors stakes in life-insurance policies using faked life expectancies. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years.

CEO of MJ Capital Funding who ran a $190 million Ponzi scheme promising high returns from small-business 'merchant cash advance' lending. She defrauded more than 15,400 investors of nearly $90 million and was sentenced to 20 years.

Former Ohio financial advisor sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for a 20-year, $8.6 million Ponzi scheme that stole from his own clients, friends, and relatives. Convicted by guilty plea.

Ran Par Funding, a merchant-cash-advance investment vehicle that sold investors securities while running a RICO-scale operation, causing more than $288 million in actual investor losses. Pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, securities fraud, tax crimes, and more; sentenced to 15.5 years.

Co-founder of Aspiration, a 'climate-friendly' financial technology company backed by celebrity investors, who defrauded lenders and investors of more than $248 million by pledging fraudulently inflated stock, faking a customer's revenue, and forging a letter claiming $250 million in cash the company didn't have. Sentenced to 14 years.

Senior promoter of Forcount, a global crypto Ponzi scheme that principally targeted Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S., promising guaranteed daily returns and doubled investments within six months. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the statutory maximum of 20 years.

Co-founder of OneCoin, a fake cryptocurrency sold through a global multi-level-marketing network that took more than $4 billion from millions of victims worldwide. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years; his partner, the 'Cryptoqueen,' remains a fugitive.

Self-styled pastor who used a Westminster, California nonprofit church and its asset-management arm to run a $33 million investment scam against his own congregation and other investors. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years.

Owners of a timeshare-resale company that defrauded more than 8,000 victims — many elderly — out of about $18 million by charging upfront fees for buyers and rentals that never materialized. Sentenced to 7 years and nearly 4 years.

Licensed insurance agent who defrauded nine annuity clients of more than $1 million by submitting withdrawal paperwork on their policies without their knowledge and diverting the funds to herself. Sentenced to 136 months.

CEO of an Israel-based operation convicted of running a $145 million international binary-options fraud through the BinaryBook and BigOption websites — rigging the odds, faking names and locations, and 'guaranteeing' returns. Sentenced to 22 years.

Once-prominent New York art advisor who defrauded at least 12 clients, an artist, an artist's estate, and a gallery of roughly $6.5 million by misusing money entrusted to her for art purchases. Sentenced to 30 months.

Ran back-to-back investment schemes in hemp/CBD processing and a bogus bottling company — the second one launched while he was still serving his sentence for the first — defrauding investors of nearly $18 million using fabricated purchase-order contracts. Sentenced to 25 years.

Ohio real estate agent who branded himself the 'Cash Flow King' on social media and podcasts, then ran a real-estate Ponzi scheme that took over $7.3 million from at least 63 victims nationwide. Sentenced to 70 months.

Former registered broker sentenced to 60 months for conspiring with a Long Island boiler room to pump and dump the stock of Hydrocarb Energy and other companies through high-pressure cold-calling that targeted elderly investors.

Fake financial advisor who falsely claimed to be Harvard-educated and defrauded professional athletes — including Dennis Rodman, Travis Best, and Ricky Williams — of millions by promising to manage their money and instead spending it. Sentenced to 10 years.

Fund manager who pleaded guilty to a 'cherry-picking' scheme — steering winning trades to his own accounts and losses to clients — and was sentenced to two years, in the first criminal cherry-picking case involving digital-asset futures.

Ran Diamond Desk Corp. and PetersenLowe, inducing investors to purchase fancy-colored diamonds using false claims about investment safety, value, expected profits, and how their money would be used. Sentenced to 9 years and over 6 years.

Galleon Group founder convicted on all 14 counts in the largest insider-trading prosecution of its era and sentenced to 11 years — then the longest insider-trading sentence in U.S. history — plus a $10 million fine and $53.8 million forfeiture.

Woodbridge Group CEO who ran a $1.3 billion real-estate promissory-note Ponzi scheme — one of the largest ever — that harmed more than 7,000 investors, many of them retirees. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years.

FTX founder convicted on seven fraud and conspiracy counts and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, with an $11 billion forfeiture order, for misappropriating billions in customer funds and defrauding investors and lenders.

Ran Future Income Payments, a nationwide scheme that offered veterans and retirees lump-sum cash for their pension and disability payments — really high-interest loans disguised as 'sales' — causing $310 million in losses to 2,500 retirees and roping in 13,000 veterans. Sentenced to 10 years.

Ran a Ponzi scheme that raised about $650 million from victims who were told their money was backed by short-term investments in cattle-trading and marijuana businesses. Convicted at trial and sentenced to 6 years each, with $14.6 million in restitution.

Promised investors his business would trade their money in the foreign-exchange market with guaranteed monthly payouts of about 10% — then ran it as a Ponzi scheme. Pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $3.3 million in restitution.

Secretly ran National Realty Investment Advisors as a $658 million real-estate Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 2,000 investors. Pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 144 months, with $507.4 million in restitution ordered.

Ran a $380 million 'bridge loan' Ponzi scheme through Drive Planning LLC, promising a guaranteed 10% return every three months and fabricating collateral sheets for real-estate properties that didn't back the investments. Described by prosecutors as likely the largest Ponzi scheme in Georgia history. Pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Solicited investors to fund a Metro-adjacent office building and home construction in Northern Virginia through Kiddar Capital, then commingled funds across entities and made Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors while diverting money to a lavish personal lifestyle. Criminally convicted and sentenced to 78 months; separately ordered by the SEC to pay $15 million in disgorgement.

Crypto trading firm founder sentenced to 5 years for a $9.4 million Ponzi scheme that promised roughly 1-2% daily returns and drew about 2,800 investors. Convicted by guilty plea.

Columbus social-media influencer sentenced to 6 years in federal prison for a $20+ million real-estate Ponzi scheme that promised 30%+ returns; investors lost more than $11 million. Convicted by guilty plea.

Ran a purported investment firm for more than three decades, telling more than 60 victims — many elderly — that their money would go into low-risk municipal bonds and CDs with guaranteed returns, then ran it as a Ponzi scheme to fund his gambling. Sentenced to 151 months.

Promoter who pleaded guilty in a scheme that promised high-yield crypto profits from AI-powered 'trading robots,' defrauding victims of more than $13 million — then set up a fake government agency, the 'Federal Crypto Reserve,' to re-victimize them.

Actor who ran 1inMM Capital, a $650 million Ponzi scheme built on forged HBO and Netflix film-distribution agreements that never existed, spending investor money on a $6 million mansion, luxury cars, and private jets. Sentenced to 20 years.

Investment adviser who, per the SEC, misappropriated client assets, sent falsified account statements, and misrepresented her trading success. She settled the SEC's charges, and a federal court entered a final judgment against her.

CEO of a precious-metals firm that the SEC and CFTC found defrauded hundreds of retirees — pushing them to move retirement savings into gold and silver coins marked up as much as 130%, versus the 1-5% promised. Resolved by consent judgments totaling tens of millions.

A former securities broker (now unregistered) named in a pending New York lawsuit alleging he misrepresented private-placement investments. He resigned from his last firm amid similar allegations and has an outstanding IRS tax lien. He denies the allegations, which are unproven.

Named as a defendant in a federal civil class action alleging deceptive "free trial" billing and false advertising of the Nuvega Lash eyelash serum. The allegations are unproven.

Named as a defendant in a federal civil class action alleging deceptive "free trial" billing and false advertising of the Nuvega Lash eyelash serum. The allegations are unproven.

Billionaire hedge-fund manager whose firm, SAC Capital, pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges and paid a record $1.8 billion; Cohen personally was never criminally charged, settling an SEC failure-to-supervise case with a temporary bar.

Legendary fund manager who beat the S&P 500 for a record 15 consecutive years (1991-2005) at Legg Mason Value Trust — a statistically extraordinary streak — then lost roughly two-thirds of the fund's value in the 2008 financial crisis, a case study in both the power and the limits of a track record.

Founder of Giverny Capital, whose Rochon Global Portfolio has compounded at roughly 14.7% annualized since 1993 — beating its benchmark by about 5 points a year for over three decades — using a public, numbers-first checklist published in detail every year.

Third-generation leader of Fidelity Investments, who has grown the firm's assets under administration from about $4.9 trillion in 2014 to over $13.7 trillion by 2024 while steering one of the industry's most trusted custodians through the shift to low-cost investing and digital assets.

Value investor who built Pabrai Investment Funds around openly 'cloning' Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's methods, delivering a 517% cumulative return since 1999 through concentrated, low-turnover, margin-of-safety investing.

Chief Investment Officer of Markel since 2001 and its sole CEO since 2023, Gayner built a multi-decade equity record that has beaten the S&P 500 by a wide margin using a public, repeatable four-part checklist.

Founder of Akre Capital Management, whose Akre Focus Fund compounded at roughly 16% a year from inception through his 2020 retirement using the 'three-legged stool' — extraordinary businesses, talented owner-operators, and long reinvestment runways — a simple, published framework built for patience over trading.

Co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, who took academic research on market factors and built it into a $586 billion investment firm with a 38-year track record of benchmark-relative outperformance — one of the clearest examples of investing built on published, peer-reviewed research rather than a black box.

Co-founder of Oaktree Capital, one of the world's leading credit and distressed-debt investors, whose decades of public memos are among the most respected — and transparent — bodies of investment thinking anywhere.

Mathematician who founded Renaissance Technologies, whose Medallion Fund posted roughly 66% annual returns before fees over decades — the greatest track record in investing history — built on rigorous quantitative science, not salesmanship.

Value investor who compounded Gotham Capital at roughly 40-50% a year from 1985 to 1994, then taught his approach openly — including the rules-based 'Magic Formula' — through best-selling books written for ordinary investors.

Pioneering contrarian and global investor whose Templeton Growth Fund compounded at roughly 16% a year for 38 years by buying at the 'point of maximum pessimism' around the world — a verifiable, decades-long record from one of history's great money managers.

A Tiananmen Square student leader who fled China, rebuilt his life in America, and became the one outside manager Charlie Munger personally entrusted with $88 million on the condition the fund stayed closed — compounding it into roughly $400 million by concentrating on a handful of businesses he understood completely.

The father of growth investing, whose 'scuttlebutt' research method and long-term, buy-quality-and-hold philosophy shaped generations of investors — including Warren Buffett, who called himself part Graham, part Fisher.

Founder of Fairfax Financial Holdings, often called the 'Canadian Warren Buffett,' who has compounded book value per share at roughly 18.9% annually for 38 years by combining Benjamin Graham-style value investing with insurance float as a low-cost source of investment capital.

Founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds, known for a data-driven approach built around understanding economic cycles.

Founder of Baron Capital, whose growth-focused funds have generated over $52 billion in gains for investors since 1982, with 96% of assets under management beating their benchmarks since inception — built on patient, long-term ownership of well-run growth businesses.

Founder of the Baupost Group and author of the value-investing classic 'Margin of Safety,' who compounded at roughly 20% a year for over four decades by prioritizing not losing money — holding cash when nothing is cheap and buying only with a margin of safety.

Founder of Fundsmith, whose flagship equity fund has returned roughly 15-18% annualized since 2010 by holding a concentrated portfolio of high-quality global businesses and doing almost nothing else — an approach he sums up as 'buy good companies, don't overpay, do nothing.'

Founder of Semper Vic Partners in 1983, who has beaten the S&P 500 over a quarter century by concentrating in globally indispensable consumer brands with 'capacity to suffer' — family-controlled businesses willing to sacrifice near-term profit for long-term reinvestment.

The father of value investing — author of Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor, mentor to Warren Buffett, and manager whose Graham-Newman fund returned about 20% a year for two decades using disciplined, evidence-based analysis.

Warren Buffett's longtime partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, whose disciplined 'quality at a fair price' philosophy helped compound Berkshire at roughly 19.8% a year for nearly six decades — and who taught it openly for free.

Legendary Yale endowment chief who compounded the fund at ~13.7% a year for 36 years and invented the 'Yale Model' — yet told ordinary investors to ignore all of it and buy low-cost index funds, calling the fund industry a 'colossal failure' that exploits individuals.

Nobel Prize-winning economist known as the father of the efficient-markets hypothesis, whose decades of peer-reviewed research on asset pricing directly shaped how Dimensional Fund Advisors and much of the institutional investing world actually operates.

Financial analyst who spent nearly a decade proving mathematically that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, and repeatedly warned the SEC in formal, evidence-backed submissions in 2000, 2001, and 2005 — years before regulators finally acted.

Founder of Vanguard and creator of the first index fund for ordinary investors. He built the entire low-cost, transparent, long-term investing model that most fraud on this site exists to exploit the absence of.

Two British fund managers who returned 921% over 13 years by finding companies that shared the benefits of their growing scale with customers instead of shareholders — then, at the peak of their success, closed the fund and handed the money back because they decided their job was done.

Ran Fidelity's Magellan Fund to a 29.2% compounded annual return over 13 years — the best sustained mutual-fund record of its era — then retired at the top and taught the public how he did it.

A Wall Street clerk with no college degree who spent a decade working for Benjamin Graham, then ran his own tiny fund for 45 years using one of the simplest methods in investing history — buy statistically cheap, unlevered stocks and wait — and beat the market almost every decade doing it.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest investors of all time, with a decades-long record of outperformance built on value investing, long-term thinking, and diversification.