Brooklyn bookkeper William "520 Percent" Miller claimed in 1899 that he had inside information on stocks and promised interest of 10 percent a week. He defrauded investors out of $1 million -- a sum equal to more than $25 million today. He served five years of a 10-year prison sentence. He later opened a grocery store on Long Island.
Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant in Boston, in 1919-20, defrauded up to 30,000 people of about $10 million (more than $115 million today) in a postal currency scheme. He spent five years in federal prison and was ultimately deported in 1934.
Lou Pearlman, mastermind behind the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and O-Town, operated a $300 million airline stock and investment scam that started in 1981. After fleeing the country, he was arrested after being expelled from Indonesia and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Steven Hoffenberg, a bill collector who briefly ran the New York Post, admitted he defrauded investors of $460 million. He pleaded guilty in 1995 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Reed Slatkin, co-founder of Earthlink, was sentenced in 2003 to 14 years in prison for swindling investors out of about $240 million.
Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for a $65 billion, multi-decade fraud.
Tom Petters, a Minnesota businessman, got 50 years for a $3.65 billion scheme.
Scott W. Rothstein, founder of a now-defunct Florida law firm, got 50 years after pleading guilty to orchestrating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
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