Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offence. While the specific elements of particular banking fraud laws vary depending on jurisdictions, the term bank fraud applies to actions that employ a scheme or artifice, as opposed to bank robbery or theft. For this reason, bank fraud is sometimes considered a white-collar crime.
Edward Maurice Mezvinsky is an American politician and lawyer from Iowa. He is a former U.S. Representative and felon. A Democrat, he represented Iowa's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms (1973–77).
Maryanne Trump Barry is an American attorney and a retired United States federal judge. She became an Assistant United States Attorney in 1974, and was first appointed to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. In 1999, she was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, by President Bill Clinton.
The Dominion of Melchizedek (DoM), is a unilaterally declared, internationally unrecognised micronation known for facilitating large scale banking fraud in many parts of the world during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Eddie Ray Kahn is an American tax protester. Kahn is currently in prison for tax crimes, with a tentative release date of 2026. Kahn founded the group American Rights Litigators and ran the for-profit businesses "Guiding Light of God Ministries" and "Eddie Kahn and Associates." According to the U.S. Justice Department, all three organizations are or were illegal tax evasion operations.
The miracle cars scam was an advance fee fraud that ran from 1997 to 2002. In its run of just over four years, over 4,000 people bought 7,000 cars that did not actually exist, losing over $21 million.
John Peter Galanis was an American financier in the 1970s and 1980s, who became a notorious white-collar criminal. He was tried and sentenced to 27 years in federal prison as a result, of which he served 13 years. Galanis has four sons and, at the age of 76, is currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in San Pedro, California, after being convicted in 2019 for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in a fraudulent and deceptive bond scam.
Matthew Bevan "Matt" Cox is an American former mortgage broker and admitted mortgage fraudster. Cox, also a true crime author, wrote an unpublished manuscript entitled The Associates in which the main character traveled the country to perpetrate a mortgage fraud similar to the one Cox ran.
In the United States, Medicare fraud is the claiming of Medicare health care reimbursement to which the claimant is not entitled. There are many different types of Medicare fraud, all of which have the same goal: to collect money from the Medicare program illegitimately.
The Spinka financial controversy is a case in which five Spinka charitable organisations under the auspices of Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Spinka Rebbe of Boro Park, as well as Weisz himself, his personal assistant, and five others were charged with various counts of tax fraud and money laundering. Their indictment alleges that the five charities were used to launder money and to avoid payment of tax on taxable income by issuing fraudulent receipts for bogus charitable contributions, and charging fees for transfers of funds. Among those charged are four men from Los Angeles, California and two from Tel Aviv. These include a diamond merchant, a businessman, and an attorney. The five Spinka charitable organizations are Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, Yeshivath Spinka, Central Rabbinical Seminary, Machne Sva Rotzohn, and Mesivta Imrei Yosef Spinka, all based in Brooklyn.
The redemption movement is a debt-resistance movement and fraud scheme active primarily in the United States and Canada. Participants allege that a secret fund is created for everyone at birth, and that a procedure exists to "redeem" or reclaim this fund to pay bills. Common redemption schemes include acceptance for value (A4V), Treasury Direct Accounts (TDA) and secured party creditor kits.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff is an American former market maker, investment advisor, financier and convicted fraudster who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for offenses related to a massive Ponzi scheme. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, the confessed operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in world history, and the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Prosecutors estimated the fraud to be worth $64.8 billion based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008.
Charlene Shuler Corley is a former defense contractor who was convicted in 2007 on two counts of conspiracy. Over the course of nine years leading up to September 2006, the company owned by Corley and her sister was found to have received over $21.5 million from the United States Department of Defense for fraudulent shipping costs; in one instance, the company was paid $998,798 for shipping two 19-cent washers. In 2009, Corley was sentenced to 78 months in prison and ordered to pay $15.5 million in restitution.
Cramming is a form of fraud in which small charges are added to a bill 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 pay these small charges without them knowing what it's all about.
Preetinder Singh Bharara is an American lawyer, author, and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for five years prior to leading the Southern District. According to The New York Times, Bharara was one of the "nation's most aggressive and outspoken prosecutors of public corruption and Wall Street crime" during his tenure.
Nevin Karey Shapiro is a convicted felon who currently is imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for University of Miami athletes. Shapiro allegedly provided football players cash, goods, prostitutes, assorted favors, and purchased a yacht on which sex parties with prostitutes were held.
1099 OID fraud is a common scam used to obtain money from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by filing false tax refund claims.
Rose Marks is the American matriarch of a family of fraudulent psychics convicted of federal crimes in 2013 in Florida. Marks and members of her extended family operated multiple storefront businesses, four in Broward County, Florida one of which was in Fort Lauderdale, named "Astrology Life" and one in Manhattan on W. 58th Street near Central Park. They told vulnerable clients that the only solution to their problems was to give the purported psychics money. Prior to this case there was doubt that a psychic could be criminally charged. Jurors were told that fortune-telling is constitutionally protected free speech, but federal prosecutors contended Marks engaged in fraud by promising to keep clients money safe, "cleanse" it and return it when she had no intention of returning it. The case drew widespread coverage. Charles Stack, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective, said the case and the ensuing publicity brought attention to predatory and fraudulent fortune tellers.
The Mantria Corporation Ponzi scheme has been described as the "biggest green energy scam" in United States history. A Federal judge in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case found Mantria had scammed more than $54.5 million “by egregiously, recklessly, knowingly, and shamelessly perpetrating a fraudulent scheme” that used “misrepresentations, omissions, and blatant lies to induce unsuspecting and unwitting victim investors to liquidate the equity in their homes and take out bank loans to invest in Defendants’ scheme, which was nothing more than smoke and mirrors.” On November 16, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged four people who targeted those nearing retirement age who were seeking real estate and "green" investments. Many of these securities were offered by Mantria Corporation.
Adaoha Ugo-Ngadi also known as Ada Udo-Ngadi is the Managing Director of Ontario Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited. She was a former employee of First Bank of Nigeria and Access Bank plc.
