Some people earn money with honest work and integrity, while others prefer to take more "creative" paths, such as embezzlement, which is the crime of deceiving, robbing someone.
The swindlers on this list were very bold, tricksters and caused a lot of people problems…
1. Joan of Valois-Saint-Remy (1756-1791)
Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy was the protagonist of one of the most impactful coups in history. She was a Frenchwoman who really wanted to be rich, but her husband didn't earn much money. One day, Jeanne heard about a diamond necklace that was for sale, but that could only be bought by the King and Queen of France, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, due to the high price of the jewel.
The swindler then had an idea. Mistress of a cardinal who needed to gain the queen's trust, Jeanne took advantage of the situation and, using letters forged by another lover of hers, she convinced the cardinal that the queen wanted a loan to buy the necklace in secret.
Jeanne even set up a date with the “queen” (a prostitute resembling Marie Antoinette), causing the cardinal to end up buying the necklace. When the necklace was in her hands, Jeanne immediately tried to sell the diamonds.
Interesting trivia:
Jeanne and her accomplices were caught and tried in public, as the King and Queen wanted to prove that they had no part in the deal. But the opposite happened! Jeanne fell in with the people and convinced everyone that it was all Marie Antoinette's fault. This event worsened the queen's already fragile reputation, and a few years later, the poor thing lost her mind in the French Revolution.
Find out here: 17 important women who made history.
2. Charles Ponzi (1882-1949)
Charles Ponzi became so notorious that a type of fraud was named after him. A Ponzi scheme is a fake business, where the scammer promises good returns to its investors. In effect, the scammer keeps the money and then pays returns to early investors with new investors' money.
An Italian immigrant to the United States, Charles Ponzi was not the first to use this scheme, but he made it known. He convinced his investors that his business would buy stamp coupons in Italy, where they were cheaper, and then sell them in the United States at a tidy profit. The problem? He never bought a single coupon!
When the fraud was exposed, Charles Ponzi went to jail, lost his money and fell into disgrace. He died poor and a fugitive in Brazil.
3. Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. (1921-1982)
This con artist wasn't very interested in the money. His interest was to gain power. With an above average intelligence, Ferdinand Demara created several false identities and got a job as a monk, psychologist, teacher and even a surgeon!
On one occasion, he was hired as a surgeon aboard an army ship and several crew members were injured. Ferdinand had never performed surgery before but he read a manual on the subject and all his patients survived!
This event made the newspapers and he was unmasked. The con artist ended his days working as a religious minister in a hospital (where most people didn't know he had pretended to be both a doctor and a monk).
4. Natwarlal (1912-2009)
Indian crook Natwarlal has taken embezzlement to new levels, going to sell or Taj Mahal, one of the best-known monuments in the world, three times!
Natwarlal also sold the Indian Parliament building, along with all the ministers inside! This was just one of many schemes he set up throughout his life, in addition to stealing many goods using fake checks and forging celebrity signatures.
9 times Indian police caught Natwarlal and he was sentenced to over 100 years in prison. But each time he managed to escape from prison, serving only 20 years in prison. His last escape was at the age of 84, on his way to the hospital! Natwarlal was never caught again and supposedly died in 2009.
5. Frank Abagnale Jr . (1948-)
Curiosities:
- Your story became a movie
- Early: most crimes were committed before age 22
- From a bandit, he became a hero!
Frank Abagnale's story is so impressive that it even made a movie! Catch Me If You Can tells how he managed to create many fake identities and swindle millions, all before he was 22.
He learned to forge checks and came up with several creative ways to convince people to hand over large sums of money to him. He even pretended to be an airline pilot, traveling the world at the expense of airlines. On some occasions, he was even asked to pilot! He also pretended to be a doctor and forged Harvard University credentials and passed the exam to be a lawyer.
After spending time in prison in France, Sweden and the United States, the FBI made a deal with Frank Abagnale, who began helping them with investigations of embezzlement and fraud. He currently has a company that helps his clients avoid scams and gives lectures on fraud and security. Frank Abagnale has changed from villain to hero!
6. Henri Lemoine (active 1905-1908)
Frenchman Henri Lemoine f.he was probably the first to sell the idea that he could produce synthetic diamonds from coal🇧🇷 He caught the attention of some investors and put together a presentation that blew them away! In a very hot furnace, Lemoine added coal, which a few seconds later was transformed into diamond!
Investors believed in that innovation and, for a few years, the swindler pretended he was creating a synthetic diamond factory. After some time, investors suspected fraud and took him to court. The authorities gave him the opportunity to collect evidence to prove he was innocent, but Henri Lemoine fled and was never seen again!
You must be wondering the secret of turning coal into diamonds, right? The truth is that the furnace had a false bottom, where Lemoine had hidden some diamonds to show at the end of the presentation.
7. Carlos Kaiser (1963-)
The world of Brazilian football is also not free from the actions of crooks. Kaiser had a 26-year career as a professional football player, playing for several clubs and countries. There was only one small detail: he didn't play football!
Kaiser lied about his footballing skills to convince clubs to sign him. Then, when it was time to kick the ball, he would pretend to have an injury and not play. Since their contracts were short-lived, the “injuries” lasted long enough to wear off.
With this tactic, in the 80s Carlos Kaiser played for Brazilian teams (such as Flamengo, Bangú and Botafogo), Mexican, Portuguese and even French. All this without knowing how to play properly.
Read here: the 10 greatest champions in the history of Brazilian Football.
8. Anthony Gignac (1970-)
Anthony Gignac was best known among his victims as Khalid bin al-Saud, Prince of Saudi Arabia. Stealing the identity of a true prince, the Colombian who grew up in the United States managed to scam millions! To open the pockets of the victims, the promise of access to the most powerful family in the world: the royal family of Saudi Arabia was enough.
Caught by the mouth!
His last attempt at embezzlement was the most daring. Said Khalid bin al-Saud has shown interest in buying a hotel for hundreds of millions of dollars. But, in keeping with Saudi tradition, the hotel owner should first offer you several very expensive gifts. He managed to outwit the dealer until he made a fatal mistake: the supposed Muslim prince ate pork in his presence, a very serious sin in Islam.
With that, his empire of lies collapsed and he was arrested. It is estimated that he stole between 7 and 8 million dollars from his victims.
9. Elizabeth Holmes (1984-)
Among the scams in the world of modern medicine, the scandal of Theranos, a company that promised to revolutionize disease diagnostics, testing for dozens of diseases at low prices🇧🇷 With that promise, the founder, Elizabeth Holmes, became one of the richest businesswomen in the world!
The idea was fantastic…but the technology didn't work. Even so, Elizabeth Holmes convinced many investors and became a celebrity in Silicon Valley.
As Theranos' technology did not work, the company used technology that already exists to carry out the tests, but its process was not secure and the data gave more errors than usual. When journalists uncovered this scandal, the company went bankrupt and Elizabeth Holmes' reputation changed from revolutionary to con artist.
