Recoveries, unpaid restitution and the scale of famous frauds.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.
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❓ Mysteries
D.B. Cooper
1971 · Unsolved
On 24 November 1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, took $200,000 in Seattle and jumped from a Boeing 727; he was never found.
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❓ Mysteries
Mary Celeste
1872 · Unsolved
In December 1872 the brigantine Mary Celeste was found under sail near the Azores with cargo intact and no one aboard; Gibraltar’s salvage court never established why ten people had left.
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❓ Mysteries
Amelia Earhart disappearance
1937 · Unsolved
On 2 July 1937 Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished on the Lae-to-Howland leg of an around-the-world flight; no wreck or remains have been identified.
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❓ Mysteries
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
2014 · Unsolved
On 8 March 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and vanished; satellite handshakes and later Indian Ocean debris never produced a located wreck or a cause.
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❓ Mysteries
Somerton Man
1948 · Mixed outcome
On 1 December 1948 an unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Park beach; a Rubaiyat scrap reading Tamám Shud defined the case, and a 2022 DNA claim named Carl Webb without settling how he died.
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💹 Frauds
Bernie Madoff
2008 · Convicted
Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 to the largest Ponzi scheme then recorded in U.S. court, after his New York investment business collapsed in December 2008.
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💹 Frauds
Enron scandal
2001 · Convicted
Enron's December 2001 bankruptcy exposed off-balance-sheet vehicles and mark-to-market abuse; prosecutions and the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act followed.
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💹 Frauds
Theranos
2015 · Convicted
Theranos promised laboratory results from a finger-stick. After 2015 reporting and a 2022 federal verdict, Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of fraud against investors.
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💹 Frauds
Charles Ponzi
1920 · Convicted
Charles Ponzi's 1920 Boston collapse, built on promised profits from postal reply coupons, gave the English language its name for paying earlier investors with later ones.
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💹 Frauds
FTX collapse
2022 · Convicted
FTX collapsed in November 2022. A Manhattan jury convicted Sam Bankman-Fried in 2023 of fraud; in 2024 the court imposed a 25-year sentence.
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💹 Frauds
1MDB scandal
2015 · Convicted
1Malaysia Development Berhad became a global kleptocracy case after 2015 reporting. U.S. and Malaysian courts later recorded convictions, pleas, and multi-billion-dollar recoveries.
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🖼️ Heists
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
1990 · Unsolved
On 18 March 1990 thirteen works vanished from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Empty frames still hang; the FBI reward stands and the case remains unsolved.
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