Major white-collar crimes in U.S. history

Texas financier R. Allen Stanford was convicted March 6 on 13 of the 14 counts he faced for running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme that ran for two decades. Here’s a look at other major white-collar crimes in U.S. history.

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R. Allen Stanford

R. Allen Stanford waits to enter a federal courthouse where the jury had reached a verdict in his criminal trial in Houston on March 6. Stanford was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud charges for leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme from his offshore bank in Antigua. A jury of eight men and four women found Stanford, whose net worth was once estimated at more than $2 billion, guilty on 13 counts of a 14-count criminal indictment.

Richard Carson / Reuters

Jeffrey Skilling

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling listens to questions after being sentenced on fraud and conspiracy charges on Oct. 23, 2006, in connection with the Enron scandal. The scandal, which involved accounting fraud, was the catalyst to the collapse of one of the largest companies in the United States. Skilling was ordered to serve 24 years and four months in prison, the harshest punishment by far in the energy company's demise.

Brett Coomer / AP

Bernard Ebbers

Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers attends a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on the accounting problems at the company in 2002. A federal judge sentenced Ebbers to 25 years in prison in July 2005 for one of the largest accounting fraud cases in U.S. history. Not only did the company's scheme top $11 billion, but it also resulted in about 17,000 employees losing their jobs.

Ray Lustig / The Washington Post

Bernard Madoff

In July 2009, financier Bernard Madoff received a maximum sentence of 150 years behind bars for being the mastermind of a $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The swindle was one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in history.

Stephen Chernin / Getty Images

Raj Rajaratnam

Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is escorted by FBI agents after being taken into custody in New York on Oct. 6, 2009. In May 2010, Rajaratnam, the mastermind behind one of the largest insider trading scandals in history, was convicted on 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. The government estimated that the trading generated profits or avoided losses of $72 million, Post writer David Hilzenrath reported. On Oct. 13, Rajaratnam received the longest term ever for insider trading — 11 years in prison. Correction: A previous version of this slide incorrectly said that the government estimated that the trading generated profits or avoided losses of $72 billion. It was $72 million. This version has been corrected.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

Zvi Goffer

In this Nov. 5, 2009, photo, stock trader Zvi Goffer leaves federal court in New York after his arraignment on charges of insider trading at hedge funds. Goffer, his brother Emanuel and Michael Kimelman were convicted of conspiracy to break securities laws in June 2011. The verdicts came a month after the conviction of Rajaratnam, who was once Goffer's boss. Goffer was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in September.

Louis Lanzano / AP

Danielle Chiesi

Danielle Chiesi, a central figure in the Galleon Group insider trading probe, is led in handcuffs from an FBI building in New York on Oct. 16, 2009. Chiesi was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Louis Lanzano / AP

John and Timothy Rigas

John Rigas, left, founder and former CEO of cable television giant Adelphia Communications, and his son Timothy Rigas leave a Manhattan federal court March, 1, 2004. They were convicted on securities fraud and bank fraud charges. In 2007, father and son were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. The 82-year-old Rigas started his 15-year prison in August 2007 as his son Timothy also started his 20-year sentence behind bars for their involvement in the collapse of their company.

Louis Lanzano / AP

Ivan Boesky

Ivan Boesky leaves a Brooklyn halfway house Dec. 12, 1989, during the final days of his prison sentence. Boesky, a trader and an arbitrage specialist, agreed on Nov. 14, 1986, to pay $100 million and cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of insider trading. Boesky's cooperation was essential for the SEC and the U.S. attorney's office to make its case against Michael Milken, Steven and Victor Posner, and a host of other powerful financiers.

David Cantor / AP

Michael Milken

Michael Milken, former head of Drexel Burnham Lambert's high-yield junk bond department in New York, is shown in this April 1989 photo. Milken was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1990 for securities fraud and was banned from the securities industry. But in 1992 a federal judge reduced Milken's sentence so that he had to serve only two years.

James Colburn / AFP/Getty Images

Dennis Kozlowski

Former Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski, center, is led out of the New York State Supreme Court in 2002 after his arraignment on charges of avoiding more than $1 million in sales tax on paintings he purchased. In 2006, Kozlowski got a 25-year sentence on securities fraud and other charges.

Suzanne Plunkett / AP

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