History has it that looting, embezzling, robbery have been in existence since the creation of heaven and earth.
As we have no significant means to measure the amount or the rate of these abnormalities. Ironically, it’s normal for such to occur everywhere, anytime and to some extent, some names have been ranked according to how huge the amount they have stolen.
We have gathered the top ten people who have stolen the largest amount of money according to history.
1. Bernie Madoff
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American fraudster and financier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion.
2. Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha had reportedly stolen between $5-$10billion in his five years of governing Nigeria.
Few have been recovered but bulk remains missing.
3. President Ben Ali
He created laws that companies needed permission to invest and trade, allowed him to shut competition out whilst letting 220 family businesses monopolise numerous industries, the Ben Ali family amassed US$13 billion.
4. Jeff Skilling
He was the CEO of Enron There was a serious misrepresentation in earnings reports, fake energy crises and serious embezzlement of retirement funds by executives of the company. Over $11 billion was embezzled.
5. Ferdinand Marcos
Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was a greedy man. He is widely believed to have taken between US$5 billion and US$10 billion, through government loans, bribes, embezzlement, taking over private companies and outright theft.
6. Saddam Hussein
Iraq’s dictator took the money the easy way: he asked. He sent his son and personal assistant with a hand-written note to the bank’s governor, telling him to hand over $920 million
7. Diezani Alison-Madueke
Reports show that $487.5 million in cash and properties has been traced to the former oil minister, by the anti-graft agency. She is 8th on the list because we couldn’t fully estimate the amount stolen but it was close to a billion $.
8. Aleksandr Andreevich Panin
Russian cyber thief was responsible for “spyEye ” which infected more than 1.4 million computers and collected bank accounts, credit card numbers and passwords. Reports show he stole close to a billion $.
9. Fujimori’s Peru
Allegedly embezzled US$600 million in public funds and used it to bribe politicians, judges and the media.
10. Teodorín Obiang
Serves as vice president to his own father.
In 2014, the US Department of Justice seized US$30 million worth of assets. In 2017, French authorities found him guilty of embezzlement confiscated his assets for $35 million. We believe he stole close to $500 million.
Which Other Looter Did You Think Should Be On This List?
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