Industry WIKI

The 1995 Latvian banking crisis was a pivotal financial collapse in Latvia that resulted in the loss of approximately 40% of the banking system's total assets and liabilities. Occurring during the "wild nineties," it remains the most significant systemic failure in the post-Soviet states prior to the 1998 Russian financial crisis. The collapse was precipitated by the insolvency of Bank B

An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is a common scam. The scam works by promising the victim a large sum of money in return for a small upfront payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.

Axie Infinity is a blockchain game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in 2018, known for its in-game economy which uses Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. It has been called "a pyramid scheme that relies on cheap labor from countries like the Philippines to fuel its growth."

Bernard Lawrence Madoff (; April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American financier, con artist, and stock broker who was the admitted mastermind of the largest-known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme w

Bitconnect (stylized bitconnect and also spelled BitConnect, ticker code BCC) was an open-source cryptocurrency from 2016 to 2018 that was connected with a high-yield investment program, a type of Ponzi scheme. After the platform administrators closed the earning platform on January 16, 2018, and refunded the users' investments in BCC following a 92% coin value crash, confidence was lost

In business, a boiler room is an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salespeople work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks or private placements or committing outright stock fraud. A common boiler room tactic is the use of falsified and bolstered information in combination with verified com

Brigade Capital Management, LP, more commonly referred to as Brigade Capital, is a global alternative investment manager specializing in credit investment strategies. The firm employs a multi-strategy, multi-asset class investment approach focused on leveraged balance sheets and manages core strategies across long/short credit, distressed debt, capital structure arbitrage, long/short eq

Carding is a term for the trafficking and unauthorized use of credit cards. The stolen credit cards or credit card numbers are then used to buy prepaid gift cards to cover up the tracks. Activities also encompass exploitation of personal data, and money laundering techniques. Modern carding sites have been described as full-service commercial entities.

Celsius Network LLC was a cryptocurrency company. Headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, Celsius maintained offices in four countries and operated globally. Users could deposit a range of cryptocurrency digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, into a Celsius wallet to earn a percentage yield, and could take out loans by pledging their cryptocurrencies as security. As of May 2022, t

Check kiting or cheque kiting (American and British English, respectively) is a form of bank check fraud, involving taking advantage of the float provided by a bank to make use of non-existent funds in a checking or other bank account. Thus, instead of being used as intended, as a negotiable instrument, checks are misused to source (and manage the flow and timing of) a form of unauthoriz

Cheque fraud (Commonwealth English) or check fraud (American English) is a category of criminal acts that involve the unlawful use of cheques to illegally acquire or (effectively) to borrow funds that do not exist within an account balance or account-holder's legal ownership. Most methods involve taking advantage of the float (the money made available by a bank for a time between the pre

Cramming is a form of fraud in which small charges are added to a bill for service(s) or product(s) by a third party without the subscriber's consent, approval, authorization or disclosure. These may be disguised as a tax, some other common fee or a bogus service, and may be several dollars or even just a few cents. The crammer's intent is that the subscriber will overlook and ultimately

CWM FX was a foreign exchange trading firm located at the Heron Tower at 110 Bishopsgate, otherwise known as Salesforce Tower. Dealing at the firm was suspended in March 2015 following a police raid on the firm and 13 arrests. There have been no convictions relating to these arrests as of 15 June 2015. CEO Anthony Constantinou was convicted in 2016 of sexual assault and sentenced to serv

An error account is a type of account used for storing compensation for errors in trading, a transaction that is not posted in a timely manner because of inconsistencies, such as an incorrect account or routing numbers to the wrong name on the account, producing a claim that needs to be resolved as soon as possible so payments can be made.

An exit scam or rug pull is a confidence trick or fraud, perpetrated under the guise of a legitimate business, that ends when the originator absconds with the funds contributed by participants. When a business entity pulls the rug and stops shipping orders while receiving payment for new orders, it could take some time before it is widely recognized that orders are not shipping. The enti

Fine print, small print, or mouseprint is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service. The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous tha

A foreclosure rescue scheme is a scam that targets those whose house is facing potential foreclosure. The scheme preys on desperate homeowners whose mortgages are in default by offering to prevent foreclosure. There are various ways in which foreclosure rescue schemes work, causing different types of harm to the homeowners, but all ultimately with the likely end result of the owner being

Foreign exchange fraud is any trading scheme used to defraud traders by convincing them that they can expect to gain a high profit by trading in the foreign exchange market. Currency trading became a common form of fraud in early 2008, according to Michael Dunn of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Forex.com is a foreign exchange (FX) and contracts for difference (CFD) trading brand owned by StoneX Group. In the United States, it is operated by GAIN Capital Group LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of StoneX Group Inc.. The brand offers leveraged trading in currencies, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies.

Fund administration is the name given to the execution of back office activities including fund accounting, financial reporting, net asset value calculation, capital calls, distributions, investor communications and other functions carried out in support of an investment fund, which may take the form of a traditional mutual fund, a hedge fund, a private equity fund, a venture capital fun

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon is a 2023 book by Michael Lewis about Sam Bankman-Fried, a fraudster who founded the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The book's publication date, October 3, 2023, coincided with the beginning of Bankman-Fried's trial on seven counts of fraud and money laundering. On November 2, 2023, in the case of United States v. Bankman-Fried, Bank

Goliath Ventures was a cryptocurrency investment firm based in Orlando, Florida. On February 24, 2026, the United States Department of Justice announced the arrest of the firm's founder and chief executive officer, Christopher Alexander Delgado, on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, alleging that the firm had operated as a Ponzi scheme. On June 30, 2026, Delgado pleaded guilty t

Hindenburg Research LLC was a U.S. investment research firm with a focus on activist short-selling founded by Nathan Anderson in 2017. Named after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which they characterize as a human-made avoidable disaster, the firm generated public reports via its website that allege corporate fraud and malfeasance. Companies that were the subjects of their reports include

The Israel Securities Authority (ISA; Hebrew: רשות ניירות ערך) is the national securities regulator of Israel. Established by law in 1968, the Israel Securities Authority sees its mandate as a way to ensure an efficient capital market based on transparency and fairness. The ISA works to fight against securities fraud, insider trading, questionable accounting practices and other activitie

A life settlement or viatical settlement (from Latin viaticum, something received before death) is the sale of an existing life insurance policy (typically of seniors) for more than its cash surrender value, but less than its net death benefit, to a third party investor. Such a sale provides the policy owner with a lump sum. The third party becomes the new owner of the policy, pays the m

The Madoff investment scandal, sometimes known as Madoffgate, was a financial scandal discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Madoff founded Bernard

A meme coin (also spelled memecoin) is a cryptocurrency that originated from an internet meme or has some other humorous characteristic.

Mismarking in securities valuation takes place when the value that is assigned to securities does not reflect what the securities are actually worth, due to intentional fraudulent mispricing. Mismarking misleads investors and fund executives about how much the securities in a securities portfolio managed by a trader are worth (the securities' net asset value, or NAV), and thus misreprese

Muddy Waters Research LLC is an American investment research firm known for activist short selling. It was founded in 2010 by investor Carson Block. The firm publishes due‑diligence reports on publicly traded companies and, through its affiliated investment adviser Muddy Waters Capital LLC, often takes positions consistent with its research.

OneCoin is a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme conducted by offshore companies OneCoin Ltd (based in Bulgaria and registered in UAE) and OneLife Network Ltd (registered in Belize), both founded by Ruja Ignatova in concert with Sebastian Greenwood. OneCoin is considered a Ponzi scheme due to its organisational structure of paying early investors using money obtained from newer ones. It was

Philatelic investment is investment in collectible postage stamps for the purpose of realizing a profit. Philatelic investment was popular during the 1970s but then fell out of favour following a speculative bubble and prices of rare stamps took many years to recover.

A pig-butchering scam or romance baiting scam is a form of online relationship and investment fraud in which perpetrators cultivate fake romantic or social relationships with victims before persuading them to invest money, often in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. Such scams are common on social media and dating apps, and often involve catfishing, investment fraud, and romance scams.

Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump).

The Punjab National Bank scam refers to the fraudulent letter of undertaking (LoU) scam worth ₹14,357 crore (approximately US$2 billion in 2018). The LoUs were issued by Punjab National Bank (PNB) at its branch in Fort, Mumbai, making the bank liable for the amount.

A pyramid scheme or pyramid scam is a fraudulent business model in which participants earn money primarily by recruiting new members rather than by selling products or services to end consumers or by generating genuine investment returns.

The regulation of cryptocurrency constitutes regulatory, legal and political actions taken by various governments to regulate and oversee the development and adoption of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Restrictions on cryptocurrency have been motivated by concerns regarding financial stability, consumer protection, national security, and enforcing laws against mon

SafeMoon LLC was an American cryptocurrency and blockchain company created in March 2021. The company created the SafeMoon token (SFM) which traded on the BNB Chain blockchain. The token charged a 10% fee on transactions, with 5% redistributed (or reflected) to token holders and 5% directed to wallets in a different currency, Binance Coin (BNB), controlled by the coin's authors. The toke

A securities commission, securities regulator or capital market authority is a government department or agency responsible for financial regulation of securities products within a particular country. Its powers and responsibilities vary greatly from country to country, but generally cover the setting of rules as well as enforcing them for financial intermediaries and stock exchanges.

A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with said person or organization, or have been paid to do so. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, sports, confidence games, cryptocurrency, or other busine

Stratton Oakmont, Inc. was an American over-the-counter brokerage house founded in 1989 by Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. The firm defrauded many shareholders, leading to the arrest and incarceration of several executives and the closing of the firm in 1996.

Telexfree (stylized as TelexFREE), a trade name owned by Telexfree Inc., was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme disguised as an internet phone service company. Prosecutors have described it as the largest fraud of all time in terms of the number of people affected - more than 1 million, with victims in various countries. The brand became best known for its operations in Brazil held by Ym

Terren Scott Peizer (born July 31, 1959) is an American businessperson who was convicted of insider trading and securities fraud. He worked as a junk bond salesman at Drexel Burnham Lambert. He testified against his former boss Mike Milken in 1990 in Milken's securities fraud prosecution in exchange for immunity from both criminal prosecution and SEC sanctions. In the decades that foll

The Glass Hotel is a 2020 novel by Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It is Mandel's fifth novel, and the first since winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award with her novel Station Eleven in 2015. It follows the aftermath of a disturbing graffiti incident at a hotel on Vancouver Island and the collapse of an international Ponzi scheme.

"To rob Peter to pay Paul", and similar variants that have developed over the centuries such as "to borrow from Peter to pay Paul", and "to unclothe Peter to clothe Paul", are English idioms meaning to take from one person to give to another, especially when it results in the elimination of one debt by incurring another. Similar phrases are found in many languages. "Manoeuvring the Apost

USI Tech Limited (also known as United Software Intelligence, or stylised as USI-TECH) was a Dubai-based cryptocurrency and forex platform trading provider, suspected to be a high-yield investment program and a Ponzi scheme. Prior to going offline with its users' funds, USI-Tech moved its website from a .com top-level domain, to a .io domain, while also appearing on a number of mirror do

United States virtual currency law is financial regulation as applied to transactions in virtual currency in the U.S. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates as commodities. The Securities and Exchange Commission also requires registration of any virtual currency traded in the U.S. if it is classified as a security and of any trading platform that meets its definition of an ex

WinCapita, previously WinClub and GiiClub, was a Finnish Internet-based Ponzi scheme that advertised itself as a private investment club engaged in currency trading. In reality, it was a bucket shop like many other foreign exchange fraud schemes. It operated mainly in Finland, with a smaller number of members also in Sweden. The operation collected about 100 million euros from more than

World Group Securities (WGS) is an American broker-dealer that provides exclusive services to World Financial Group a multi-level marketing financial and insurance services company. WGS is a subsidiary of the Dutch-owned AEGON insurance Group. WGS has been involved in a number of lawsuits with state regulators alleging the selling of unsuitable products to elderly people.