American fraudsters

Samuel Israel III (born July 20, 1959) is an American-born former hedge fund manager for the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which he founded in 1996.

Kenneth Andrew Walton (born November 23, 1967) is an American software developer and author of the memoir Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay, which details his time spent selling forged art on the online auction site eBay.

Dennis Dale "Denny" McLain (born March 29, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player.

Reed Eliot Slatkin (born January 22, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan) was an initial investor and co-founder of EarthLink and the perpetrator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the United States since that conducted by Charles Ponzi himself.

Fritz Julius Kuhn (May 15, 1896 – December 14, 1951) was the leader of the German American Bund, prior to World War II.

James Addison Reavis (May 10, 1843 – November 27, 1914), later using the name James Addison Peralta-Reavis, the so-called Baron of Arizona, was an American forger and fraudster.

Mark Anthony Wade (born October 15, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player.

Michael O. Billington is an activist in the LaRouche Movement, Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, and author of Reflections of an American Political Prisoner: the Repression and Promise of the LaRouche Movement.

Michael R. Veon (born January 19, 1957) is a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 14th District from 1985 through 2006.

John Hicklin Hall (July 17, 1854 – July 27, 1937) was a politician and attorney in the U.

Elbirt Almerson Woodward (March 24, 1836 – September 29, 1905) was a major figure in the Boss Tweed corruption scandal in 1871.

Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was a con artist, saloon and gambling house proprietor, gangster, and crime boss of the 19th-century Old West.

Jordan Ross Belfort (/ˈbɛlfɔːrt/; born July 9, 1962) is an American author, motivational speaker, and former stockbroker.

Edward Maurice "Ed" Mezvinsky (/mɛzˈvɪnski/; born January 17, 1937) is an American former politician and congressman.

James B. "Jim" McDougal (August 25, 1940 – March 8, 1998), a native of White County, Arkansas, and his wife, Susan McDougal (the former Susan Carol Henley), were financial partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in the real estate venture that led to the Whitewater political scandal of the 1990s.

Jacob Franklin "Jake" Butcher (born 1936) is former American banker and politician.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy (Telugu: లకిరెడ్డి బాలి రెడ్డి; born May 1937) is a landlord, convicted felon, and chairman of the Lakireddy Balireddy College of Engineering.

Kenneth Lee "Ken" Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman.

Blake Judd (born November 13, 1982) is an American musician and co-founder of Battle Kommand Records.

Esther Elizabeth Reed (born March 8, 1978) is an American woman convicted of fraud and identity theft charges.

Garrett Brock Trapnell (January 31, 1938 – September 7, 1993) was a con man, bank robber, and aircraft hijacker of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Gaston Bullock Means (July 11, 1879 – December 12, 1938) was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist.

John James Rigas (born November 14, 1924) is one of the founders of Adelphia Communications Corporation, which at its peak was one of the largest cable TV companies in the United States.

Norman Yung Yuen Hsu, born October 1951, is a convicted pyramid investment promoter who associated himself with the apparel industry.

Scott D. Sullivan was an American Certified Public Accountant and the former Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, Treasurer, and a board member of WorldCom, who was convicted as part of WorldCom's $3.

Scott W. Rothstein (born June 10, 1962) is a disbarred lawyer and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm.

Sean David Morton (born October 1, 1959) is a self-described psychic and alleged remote viewer who has referred to himself as "America's Prophet.

Russ Hamilton (born 1948 or 1949) is an American poker player.

John Parnell Thomas (January 16, 1895 – November 19, 1970) was a stockbroker and politician.

John Ruffo (born November 24, 1954) is an American former business executive, white-collar criminal and confidence man, who in 1998 was convicted in a scheme to defraud many US and foreign banking institutions of over 350 million dollars.

Albert Gonzalez (born 1981) is an American computer hacker and computer criminal who is accused of masterminding the combined credit card theft and subsequent reselling of more than 170 million card and ATM numbers from 2005 through 2007—the biggest such fraud in history.

James Orsen "Jim" Bakker (pronounced "Baker"; born January 2, 1940) is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister and a former host (with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker) of The PTL Club, an evangelical Christian television program.

Chael Patrick Sonnen (/ˈtʃeɪl ˈsʌnən/; born April 3, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist who is signed with Bellator MMA.

Charles Shaw (July 4, 1960) is an American rapper and singer who, in 1988, performed on recordings credited to Milli Vanilli.

Curtis Howe Springer (December 2, 1896 – August 19, 1985) was an American radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and Methodist minister best known for founding the Zzyzx Mineral Springs resort located within Southern California's Mojave Desert.

John Edward Robinson (born December 27, 1943) is a convicted serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 of three murders and received the death sentence for two of them.

Robert Webster Kehr (born 7 October 1946 in Jefferson City, Missouri) is an American author and promoter.

George Chancellor Rawlings, Jr.

Arthur Abba Goldberg (born 1940) is an American businessman and leader in the ex-gay movement.

Stephen Walsh (born 1944) is one of two American money managers arrested on February 24, 2009 for alleged securities fraud of between $550 million and $670 million.

Peter Franklin Paul (born September 2, 1948) is a former lawyer and entrepreneur who was convicted for conspiracy and drug dealing, and later for securities fraud in connection with his business dealings with Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee.

William Aramony (July 27, 1927 – November 11, 2011) was CEO of United Way of America for more than twenty years and helped build the organization into the largest charity in the United States.

William Frederick Koch (1885–1967) was a U.

William Pidgeon (ca. 1800 – ca. 1880) was an antiquarian and archaeologist most famous for his 1858 work, Traditions of Dee-Coo-Dah and Antiquarian Researches, a putative history about lost tribes of the Upper Mississippi and the mounds they left behind.

Ezri Namvar (born c. 1952) is an Iranian-born American businessman, philanthropist and convicted criminal.

Hassan Nemazee (born January 27, 1950) is a multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker and convicted felon.

Sholam Weiss (also spelled Shalom Weiss; born April 1, 1954) is an American former businessman and convicted felon.

Marc Stuart Dreier (born May 12, 1950) is a former American lawyer who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2009 for committing investment fraud using a Ponzi scheme.

Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is a former University of Miami football booster who is currently imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

Robert Ray Courtney (born September 15, 1952) is an American former pharmacist who owned and operated Research Medical Tower Pharmacy in Kansas City, Missouri.

Robert Lee Vesco (December 4, 1935 – November 23, 2007) was a fugitive criminal United States financier.

James Guy "Jim" Tucker Jr.

William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878)—often erroneously referred to as "William Marcy Tweed" (see ), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed—was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State.

Monroe Edwards (1808 – January 27, 1847) was an American slave trader, forger and convicted criminal who was the subject of a well-publicized trial and conviction in 1842.

Henry Blodget (born 1966) is an American businessman, investor, journalist, and author.

Mark Edward Whitacre (born May 1, 1957) came to public attention in 1995 when, as president of the BioProducts Division at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) based in Decatur, Illinois, he was the highest-level corporate executive in U.

Melvin "Mel" Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.

John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was a controversial American who fraudulently claimed to be a medical doctor (he had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a "diploma mill") who became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans.

Kirtanananda Swami, also known as Swami Bhaktipada (September 6, 1937 – October 24, 2011) was the highly controversial charismatic Hare Krishna guru and co-founder of the New Vrindaban Hare Krishna community in Marshall County, West Virginia, where he served as spiritual leader for 26 years (from 1968 until 1994).

Ryan David Leaf (born May 15, 1976) is a former American football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons.

Martin Arthur Armstrong (born November 1, 1949 in New Jersey) is the former chairman of Princeton Economics International Ltd.

Russell Erxleben (born January 13, 1957) is a former American football player and currency investor.

Thomas Joseph Petters is an American businessman and the chairman and CEO of Petters Group Worldwide who was convicted of massive business fraud in 2009 and is now imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth.

Abel Buell (1742–1822), born in Killingworth, Connecticut, was a goldsmith, silversmith, jewelry designer, engraver, surveyor, printer, type manufacturer, mint master, textile miller, and counterfeiter in the American colonies.

David G. Friehling (born November 27, 1959) is an American accountant who was arrested and charged in March 2009 for his role in the Madoff investment scandal.

Dennis B. Levine (born August 1952) was a prominent player in merger and acquisition business and the Wall Street insider trading scandals of the mid-1980s.

James Allen Hydrick (born February 28, 1959) is an American former stage performer, self-described psychic and convicted child molester.

Joseph "Joe" Howard, Jr.

Peter Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born American televangelist, fraudulent faith healer, and self-proclaimed prophet.

Shearn Moody Jr. (May 23, 1933 – June 25, 1996) was an American financier, entrepreneur and philanthropist from Galveston, Texas.