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Crime & Notoriety

Assassins, demagogues, gangsters and frauds. Influence is not the same as merit, and this corpus records both.

All Notorious Figures

Role: Any Criminal 18 Assassin 6 Financier 4 Fraudster 4 Intelligence Officer 4 Legislator 4

Order: Most notable By term A–Z Born earliest Born latest Longest lived Shortest lived

4 people

Bernie Madoff 1938–2021Notorious FiguresFinancier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history — costing investors tens of billions of dollars.

Charles Ponzi 1882–1949Notorious FiguresThe 1920 Boston postal-coupon fraud that gave the Ponzi scheme its name

Elizabeth Holmes b. 1984Notorious FiguresTheranos founder convicted of fraud over false claims about the company's blood-testing technology.

Ferdinand Ward 1851–1925Notorious FiguresFinancier whose Ponzi scheme destroyed the firm bearing Ulysses S. Grant's name and bankrupted him.