Throughout the history of the U.S. Stock Market, there have been countless crooks, swindlers, and villains. Money can drive people to cheat, and there have been no shortage of cheaters over the years.

Undoubtedly, the biggest hoax in the history of the market is credited to Bernard Madoff, who made off (no pun intended) with over $10 billion of his investors’ money through a massive Ponzi scheme. However, there have been countless other criminal activities, such as the Enron scandal of the early 2000’s.

Enron’s management hid debt and multiplied profits to make attractive reports, which completely belied the real financial situation. Enron’s top employees, including the late CEO Kenneth Lay (died before he could begin his sentence), COO Jeffrey Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow are currently incarcerated.

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