Nevin Shapiro had what many would consider a great life. He drove nice cars, had a beautiful home in Miami Beach, and spent his nights partying with famous athletes like Shaquille O’Neal. Shapiro was living the high life, and people assumed his high-roller lifestyle was funded by his business, Capitol Investments.

But, Shapiro’s business hadn’t conducted operations in years. The money was actually coming from investors who didn’t realize that their money was being used to pay old investors. That’s right, it was a Ponzi scheme. A $900 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

In 2008, Satish Gabhawala ran a motel off the interstate in Harvey, Illinois. The motel had a 24-hour diner and was used primarily by truckers. But Gabhawala had a vision: he was going to transform the motel into a Holiday Inn and conference center.

There was just one problem: Gabhawala didn’t have the money. So he contacted an advisor, who convinced the city of Harvey to raise $14 million from bond issuances to back the project. Harvey had been in decline for years, so this was an opportunity to turn things around and generate some tax revenue.

But 5 years later, the hotel still wasn’t finished. All the city had to show for its money was a gutted building, full of exposed wires. People began asking questions. Where had the $14 million gone?

The SEC then launched a bombshell, charging the city of Harvey with fraud. They found out what happened to that money, and it wasn’t good. Millions of dollars had been misappropriated, and the city’s comptroller got rich in the process. It was a complete mess. And before it was all over, someone would end up dead.

When you think of high-growth companies, you probably don’t think of life insurance. But Equity Funding Corporation of America was the exception. The company reported strong growth for nearly a decade, culminating in a record profit in 1973.

But just a few weeks later the firm imploded. It seems the company wrote insurance policies for people who didn’t exist, and it wrote so many fake policies that the fraud wouldn’t have been possible but for a relatively new invention: the computer.

In 1998, American Bank Note spun off part of its business in an IPO.  Investors were excited. American Bank Note had been making products to prevent counterfeiting since the 18th century. This was a chance to invest in a company with a long tradition, and that made products which prevented fraud. But just 6 months after the IPO, the company said it needed to restate its financials. A company that had been created to prevent fraud had lied about its revenue. The stock price dropped 80% in just two days, and investors lost millions.

The company’s executives were put on trial and convicted, but then nothing happened for an entire decade. Would these con artists ever face justice?

Electronic Game Card had created an innovative new product. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on R&D, it had patented a small digital device, about the size of a credit card. The CEO said this device was in high demand; particularly from the lottery industry, where companies saw it as an alternative to the scratch card. Sales were growing and the company was profitable; the future looked bright.

But there was something not quite right about the company. Its customers had no online presence, and the company’s bank account and accounts receivable were linked to offshore P.O. boxes. The audit partner said everything was fine, and signed off on the audits. But when a new CFO flew to London to track down a bookkeeper, he uncovered the company’s dark secret.

In March of 2002, Adelphia was the 6th largest cable TV provider in the U.S. But then the company made one tiny financial disclosure and within 3 months it was bankrupt.  Shareholders filed lawsuits, the SEC alleged there was fraud, and executives went on trial.  What the heck happened?

In 2013, Homex was the largest real estate development company in Mexico.  The Mexican government had pushed to increase the amount of affordable housing, and Homex had responded.  It rapidly built homes in cities across Mexico, while investors made millions.  But just one year later Homex was bankrupt, and under investigation by the SEC.  It turns out that much of the company’s revenue was completely bogus.  And the SEC had satellite images to prove it.