Answer
Oct 02, 2022 - 03:25 PM
Courtesy: Pexels
Successful entrepreneurs live some of the most desirable lifestyles and enjoy many luxuries and privileges due to their success. However, for most of them, achieving this success is all that matters, and they wouldn’t mind exploiting the world if it increases their chance of making their dreams a reality.
Here’s a list of entrepreneurs who have succeeded by exploiting others.
-
Ken Lay - Founder and CEO of Enron
Kenneth Lay founded Enron as an energy company. To maximize profit, he hired Jeffery Skilling to serve as CEO. They soon expanded to commodity trading, weather trading, and manipulating California’s power grid, which caused immense damage to innocent Californians, all for the sake of making a profit.
Before Enron imploded, it was worth $70 billion. Ultimately, the company lost all its wealth within a month and ripped off $30 billion from Californians.
But it didn't end there because one of their staff, Cliff Baxter, committed suicide, and 7,000 staff of Arthur Andersen—one of the oldest accounting firms—lost their jobs as the company folded. Not to mention the 20,000 Enron employees that also lost their jobs.
-
Elizabeth Holmes - Founder and CEO of Theranos
Elizabeth Holmes had the typical silicon valley entrepreneur story but lacked the success to back it up. However, she was able to defraud investors of $400 million, make it into the Forbes billionaire list, and was praised as a pioneer in the laboratory diagnostics industry. But there was never a working technology to support their lofty claims.
In the end, the SEC charged Holmes and Theranos $700 million in fraud, and false claims, leading to her eventual downfall. The firm's collapse led to 800 employees losing their jobs and the death of an employee, Ian Gibbons.
-
Do Kwon - Founder and CEO of Terra Luna
Due to a lack of regulations, the crypto industry is flooded with several clever entrepreneurs exploiting their audience for gains. But probably the biggest and most shocking of them is what happened to Do Kwon’s Terra Luna and how the crypto company lost over $45 billion in less than a week.
Do Kwon founded Terra Luna on Ponzinomics, which caused the price of Luna to rise incredibly fast, attracting thousands of investors who poured their life savings into Luna.
And when the Ponzi bubble finally burst on May 7th, 2022, thousands of Do Kwon’s investors lost everything. Several suicides were reported on Luna’s Discord and Telegram groups, and one investor broke into Do Kwon’s home.
-
Jessica Alba and Chris Gavigan - Founders of The Honest Company
What had started as Jessica Alba’s Honest Company was quickly proven not to be so honest. The company had positioned itself as a truthful brand that used safe, non-toxic ingredients. So it was pretty jarring to customers when a Wall Street Journal article showed that The Honest Company had used toxic chemicals in their products.
Jessica Alba’s company exploited customer trust and advantage of the fact that customer demand for healthy, natural, and eco-friendly products was at an all-time high. And instead of making things right, she doubled down, denying everything and calling the Wall Street Journal’s article “junk science.”
Today, her $1.7 billion company faces several consumer lawsuits and stands a significant risk of failing.
-
Allen Stanford
Allen Stanford used a Ponzi scheme to defraud 18,000 investors of $8 billion. He amassed a personal fortune estimated by Forbes to be $2.2 billion before getting sentenced to jail for 110 years in 2012. Allen is currently serving time in a Florida Prison.
Other Notable Mentions
Entrepreneurs are known for their result-oriented nature, so it doesn't surprise us that many entrepreneurs are willing to take advantage of people to achieve success. Here are some honorable mentions.
-
Bernie Madoff: The creator of the largest Ponzi scheme to ever exist. His Ponzi scheme caused untold miseries to everyone involved, including his family members.
-
Jordan Belfort: The wolf of wallstreet. Is there anything more to say?
-
Dolce and Gabbana: Accused of concealing one billion euros from Italian tax authorities.
Add New Comment