Biggest Business Scandals Of 2008

A compilation from HuffingtonPost regarding millions and billions of dollars loss, evaporated, swindled, overspend, collapsed, defrauding, scammed, bailout ... the nasty ingredients for the biggest business scandals of 2008.

Jerome Kerviel, loss $8billion

Only three weeks into 2008, Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel's $8 billion loss made headlines around the world and seemed to set the tone for the year. Kerviel served less than two months in prison and currently works at an information systems and computer security consulting firm.




James Cayne, Bear Steans collapsed

On the weekend in early March that Bear Stearns was collapsing, chairman James Cayne was competing in a bridge tournament in Detroit. And the week before the impending demise of the venerable firm, he closed on a $25 million condo at the newly converted Plaza Hotel in New York City. Also that week, CEO Alan Schwartz went on CNBC to deny a liquidity crisis.

Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Financial

Permatanned Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, came to symbolize the excesses of the subprime mortgage crisis, especially after it was revealed in June that certain powerful congressmen received favorable mortgages by virtue of being "Friends Of Angelo." In one infamous incident, Mozilo once disparaged a Countrywide customer's plea for mortgage assistance with a simple reply: "Disgusting."

Henry T. Nicholas, Broadcom

In one of the most tabloid-worthy scandals, Broadcom founder and CEO Henry T. Nicholas III was indicted in June for a slew of charges including felony drug possession, conspiracy and securities fraud. He reportedly built an underground sex cave at his California estate where he could indulge his "manic obsession with prostitutes" and "addiction to cocaine and Ecstasy," according to a lawsuit filed by a construction team hired to build the lair.

Raffaelo Follieri

Italian investor Raffaelo Follieri was accused in July of defrauding Bill Clinton and supermarket magnate Ron Burkle out of millions of dollars and misappropriating the assets to spend on five-star lodging, dog care and jet travel for his girlfriend, "Devil Wears Prada" actress Anne Hathaway. As part of his scheme to buy up Catholic Church property, Follieri boasted of his connections to the Vatican, once hiring the the nephew of the former cardinal secretary of state.

Richard Fuld, $75 billion evaporated

While some business observers lament the government's decision to let Lehman Brothers fail in September, headstrong CEO Richard Fuld was widely criticized for earning $240 million between 2005 and 2007 while making decisions that doomed the venerable firm, earning him the dishonor of being named The Financial Times' "Overpaid CEO" of 2008. Most recently, it was revealed that Fuld and his colleagues evaporated $75 billion by not planning for an orderly bankruptcy.

AIG, $124 billion bailout

AIG stirred outrage when, shortly after getting a $124 billion bailout from the federal government in September, the firm's senior managers took lavish trips, including a $440,000 weeklong excursion to the St. Regis resort in Orange County, Calif. and an $86,000 English hunting trip.

GM's Rick Wagoner, Chrysler's Robert Nardelli and Ford's Alan Mulally

The CEOs of the Big Three automakers - GM's Rick Wagoner, Chrysler's Robert Nardelli and Ford's Alan Mulally - were roundly denounced for taking corporate jets to Washington for their first appearance before Congress in November to plead for a government bailout. When members of Congress asked them if they would consider working for $1 a year, Mulally (whose compensation totaled $21.7 million in 2007) responded, "I think I'm okay where I am."

Marc Dreier, Lawyer, fraud $100million

In one of the stranger scandals, lawyer Marc Dreier was busted for the "brazen fraud" of swindling hedge funds of $100 million. Dreier, who represented Strahan, Jon Bon Jovi and Jay Leno, had a knack for elaborate ruses, is accused of impersonating a lawyer in Toronto and arranging for a colleague to pretend to be a real-estate firm's controller as part of his bid to peddle phony promissory notes.

Bernie Madoff, $50billion

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Bernie Madoff came along in December and confessed to the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Just three weeks before the end of the year, Madoff confessed to his two sons that his powerful firm was a fraud totaling at least $50 billion. The list of Madoff's victims reads like a Who's Who in the worlds of finance, celebrity and philanthropy: Stephen Spielberg, Mort Zuckerman, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick, BNP Paribas, RBS, Credit Suisse, Yeshiva University and French aristocrat Rene Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who slit his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt.