Ponzi scheme is one of the investment scams that take place all over the world. This is generally a way of fooling people so that they invest their money into the so called investment program. The agent promises people that they will be getting very high profit when their money will be returned. The promoters take people into confidence that their money is being invested into very secure place and they are sure to get huge profit. Once enough amount of money is taken by the promoter, he simply vanishes away with all of them and people are left with nothing but to blame themselves. Here are the Top 10 Biggest Ponzi schemes Scammers of all times.

10. Charles Ponzi

Charles Ponzi was the one who is said to be the father of these types of scams. He was from Italy and he was the first one to do this famous fraud to the people on a very large scale. What he did was even more interesting to find out. He actually a business in which he used to buy and sell postal coupons. He asked his investors to invest money and in return they will get 50% profit of their money in only 45 days and fill they are willing to wait, they will get 100% profit in 90 days. Likewise he collected a lot of money from the people conning them. He was finally arrested when his fraud came in light of the public. He spent so many years in jail then.

9. Michael Eugene Kelly

Michael Eugene Kelly was a businessman from Mexico. He was the owner of some resort there in Mexico. He is said to have cheated senior citizens. He convinced them to invest their retirement money into his plan and he cheated them. He told them that they will be getting share in his chain of hotels which never happened. The FBI charged him with a fraud case of 428 million US dollars. He is now locked in some prison of United States serving his prison sentence by the law. He was a major con man who cheated many elder people in United States.

8. Reed Slatkin

The number eighth position our list is occupied by Reed Slatkin, who is said to be man behind the largest Ponzi scheme in United States ever done. When he conned people there in the United State he was on the chair of being a Scientology minister. He is accused of fraud of 593 million US dollars. He cheated around 800 people there. Many top class people from United States were his victims. He pictured himself as a brilliant investment consultant. He was arrested and sent to prison. He is serving his sentence of fourteen year in prison.

7. ZeekRewards

The next in our list is ZeekRewards. This investment fraud is one of the largest Ponzi scheme in United States. The people behind this website collected around 600 million US dollars from more than thousand people and promised their investors to get daily profit from the company on the basis of some reward point system of the company. The United States government got a hint that this is a major Ponzi scheme and so they shut down the website and the company’s headquarter. Burks who is the man behind this website is now arrested and a case against him is going on in court.

6. The “Double Shah”

The “Double Shah” is a famous con artist of Pakistan who conned many people there with his Ponzi scheme. His original name was Sibtul Shah but he got famous with his name as The Double Shah. It is shocking to find out that this person was a teacher by profession. Once he went to Dubai for some purpose and when he returned he asked his known persons to invest money into his scheme. According to him he said that he will return the double amount of money in just 15 days. He said that he has learned some great investment techniques in the stock market when he was in Dubai. It is said that he collected around 1 billion US dollars. He was finally arrested on the charge of robbery.

5. Kautilya Pruthi

Kautilya Pruthi is the UK businessman who is said to be the mastermind behind the UK’s biggest Ponzi scheme. He convinced people to invest into his scheme and he said that they will be getting profit using further investment that they make into the scheme and not by the profit which they make.  He is a person with lavish lifestyle. He used investors’ money to full fill his extravagant lifestyle. He is currently serving his sentence of fourteen years and six months in prison by the UK law. His scam was worth £115 million. Many upper class people from UK were his victims.

4. Scott Rothstein

Scott Rothstein was a lawyer who was thrown out of the job. He was the chairman of the firm that is called as the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He had a lavish lifestyle and is used the money for this purpose. He is said to have done a con of 1.2 billion US dollars. His Ponzi scheme is largest one in the South Florida. He is now arrested by the authorities and a sentence by the United States law is waiting. He sponsored law firms and political agendas with the money he got.

3. Tom Petters

Thomas Joseph Petters is a businessman from the United States. He served as the chairman of the company called as the Petters Group Worldwide. He is said to be the person who possessed Polaroid. His company said that they will be using the investors’ money in the purchasing of electronics items. His scam is a very huge. He conned a whopping 3.65 million US dollars from the people there. Currently he is in jail after being sentenced in April 2010 by the court for 50 years.

2. Allen Stanford

The second spot in our list is for Allen Stanford. He is said to be a financier and he used to sponsor the professional sports persons. He is said to have looted 8 billion US dollars which is one of the biggest Ponzi scheme fraud of all times. He was from a very reputed family of United States. Like most of the scammers, currently he is in jail and is serving his sentence of 110 years by the United State law. He used to sell certificates of the deposits that was made into his company by fraud.

1. Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff was an American businessman who is at the top of our list. He is the biggest Ponzi scheme scammer of all times.  He used to run an investment and security firm which was a fake one. He looted a whopping 50 billion US dollars from the people of United States. He was also the member of the NASDAQ. Same as others he is in prison now. The court sentenced him with 150 years in prison.