1) Madoff fraud

New York hedge fund manager and Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff has been charged with what could be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff had apparently planned to carve up his last $३००m (२००m) between friends, family and employees before making the shocking confession that his investment prowess was really the result of one of the world's biggest ever frauds.

But, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the ७०-year-old could not implement his plan before his huge pyramid scheme - whose १०-१२% annual returns had attracted top-flight investors around the globe - collapsed with losses of at least $५०bn.

The alleged victims span from the super rich, to pensioners and powerful financial institutions, to local charities. Some investors claim they've been wiped out, while others are still likely to come forward. Among the world's biggest banking institutions, Britain's HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Man Group PLC, Spain's Grupo Santander SA, France's BNP Paribas and Japan's Nomura Holdings have reported to have fallen victim to Madoff's alleged $५० billion Ponzi scheme.

3) Charles Ponzi

It was one of the biggest swindlers in US history. In one of Charles Ponzi’s early scams around 1920, he offered investors a 50% return on their money in 45 days, or a doubling of their money in 90 days. By February 1920, Ponzi’s best-known scam had taken in $5,000, by March, he was up to $30,000.

At that time Ponzi began hiring agents to expand his swindle. By pushing his impressive high rate of return, he could often persuade would-be investors to send money. In May 1920, he was up to $420,000 and by July 1920, he was up to millions.

About 40,000 people invested about $15 million all together; in the end, only a third of that money was returned to them. Ponzi was indicted on 86 counts of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in prison in 1920.

5) Barings

A lethal mix of massive fraud and malfeasance led to the collapse of Barings PLC in February १९९५. In February, the oldest merchant bank in Britain collapsed because of massive trading losses run up by Nicholas Leeson, २८, a trader whose bosses believed was running a riskless yet highly profitable arbitrage operation in Singapore.

Rather than the large profits the management of Barings thought were being posted in Singapore, the Bank of England's report showed that Leeson's operation lost money almost from the beginning. By the end of १९९३, those losses totaled थ२० million, rising to more than २०० million by the end of १९९४ and escalating to ८२७ million ($१.३ billion) by the end of February.