Pyramid and Ponzi schemes

fraudulent investment scheme that pays earlier investors with proceeds from later investors

type of unsustainable business model

Italian businessman and con artist (1882–1949)

Herbalife Nutrition Ltd., also called Herbalife International, Inc. (with a U.S. subsidiary called Herbalife International of America) or simply Herbalife, is an American multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and sells dietary supplements.

1997 conflict in Europe

American talent manager and fraudster (1954–2016)

Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time

Lyoness International AG was a multi-level marketing company established in Austria in 2003. According to Lyoness, the company was active in more than 40 countries, spread over six continents, and their shopping community consisted of more than five million members as of 2016. In several countries Lyoness is suspected as being, or ruled as being, a pyramid scheme.

Qnet Ltd, formerly known as QuestNet and GoldQuest, is a Hong Kong–based multi-level marketing (MLM) company owned by the QI Group. QNet was founded in 1998 by Vijay Eswaran and Joseph Bismark. The company's products include energy, weight management, nutrition, personal care, home care and fashion accessories on an e-commerce platform.

type of Ponzi scheme, an investment scam that promises unsustainably high return on investment by paying previous investors with the money invested by new investors

economic crisis in Albania in 1997 caused by the collapse of pyramid schemes involving ⅔ of the Albanian population and ½ of the Albanian GDP, which led to the Albanian Civil War

investment scandal discovered in 2008

Thai prisoner with a prison sentence of 141,078 years

bank

smartphone scam in India

financial scandal in India

Afinsa was a company from Spain, which at one point was the world's third largest collectibles company, after Sotheby's and Christie's, and with its controlling stake in Escala Group operated in many European cities, the United States and Asia. Founded in 1980 by Albertino de Figueiredo, a Portuguese national living in Spain, the group is headquartered in Madrid and has offices in many other cities, including Barcelona, Vigo, Valladolid and Lisbon.

American politician (1941-2002)

French fraudster

American fraudster

Polish-American polka musician

Ponzi scheme launched in 2011

American fraudster and hedge fund manager

American multi-level marketing company

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 Ympactus Comercial Ltda after it was involved in an ongoing investigation and trial for operating a Ponzi scheme, and later for having its operations suspended in the US by SEC under the charges of operating a mu

American basketball player

financial services group and defunct Ponzi scheme

fraudulent pyramid scheme

company

American fraudster

pyramid investment/Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

former financial company perpetrating a Ponzi scheme