Full investigative reports on the scammers behind the headlines.
Long-form dossiers on court-convicted fraudsters, publicly-exposed con artists and anonymous undercover reports — one case, one file, all the receipts.
Evidence first. Always.
Court-confirmed first
Convictions, indictments and SEC actions are cited with case numbers and links to primary sources.
Publicly-exposed scammers
Repeat offenders surfaced by reporters, regulators or community investigators — with the receipts.
Anonymous tips
Undercover and victim-submitted reports with photographic evidence, reviewed by our moderators.
11 open cases
Updated continuously. Every file reviewed against primary sources.
Max Sangtum Trading
a.k.a. Max Akem (a.k.a. Max Mayor, J.P.J. Akem, "Michael Bell")
Cameroonian advance-fee trader behind a decade of fake Forex, crypto & commodity sites
Long-running West African advance-fee scam operation trading under the banner "Max Sangtum Trading" and a rotating set of fake Forex, crypto and agricultural-commodity websites. Operator is publicly identified across WHOIS records and social profiles as Max Akem, now reported to be living in Douala, Cameroon.
- Loss
- Reported in the hundreds of millions of XAF (allegedly ~half a billion FCFA)
- Victims
- Multiple individual investors across romance, Forex and commodity scams (2014–present)
- Region
- Cameroon (operating); victims worldwide
- Filed
Robert Haley
After-school 'behavioral health' billing fraud
Cincinnati, Ohio operator charged in a multimillion-dollar Medicaid fraud involving an after-school behavioral-health program that billed for services never delivered to enrolled children.
- Loss
- Multimillion-dollar Medicaid losses (alleged)
- Victims
- Ohio Medicaid program & enrolled children's families
- Region
- United States (Ohio)
- Filed
Troy Murray
The elder-fraud 'sucker list' supplier
Hickory, North Carolina data broker who sold curated lead lists of elderly Americans to overseas lottery-and-sweepstakes scammers. Sentenced to 121 months in May 2026 for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
- Loss
- Tens of millions in downstream victim losses
- Victims
- Elderly Americans across all 50 states
- Region
- United States (North Carolina)
- Filed
MJ Capital Funding
a.k.a. Johanna M. Garcia & Pavel R. Hernandez
A $196M merchant-cash-advance Ponzi
Johanna M. Garcia and Pavel R. Hernandez ran MJ Capital Funding as a ~$196 million Ponzi scheme disguised as a merchant cash-advance business, targeting Latino investors across South Florida. Both are now serving federal prison sentences.
- Loss
- ~$196M across 16,000+ investors
- Victims
- Primarily Latino retail investors in Broward & Miami-Dade counties
- Region
- United States (South Florida)
- Filed
Daren Li
Sentenced to 20 years — then absconded
Chinese national and St. Kitts & Nevis citizen convicted of running a $73 million pig-butchering crypto investment scheme. Sentenced in absentia to 20 years after fleeing US supervision; currently a federal fugitive.
- Loss
- ~$73M wired to scheme-controlled accounts
- Victims
- Hundreds of US victims of romance-investment scams
- Region
- China / St. Kitts & Nevis / United States
- Filed
Malone Lam & the Crypto RICO Ring
a.k.a. Malone Lam
Lambos, nightclubs, and a federal racketeering indictment
Federal prosecutors charged Malone Lam and a dozen co-conspirators with running a RICO enterprise that drained crypto wallets via social-engineering and laundered proceeds through luxury cars, watches, and nightclubs in Miami and Los Angeles.
- Loss
- $230M+ from a single Washington, DC victim alone
- Victims
- Multiple high-net-worth crypto holders
- Region
- United States (Miami / Los Angeles)
- Filed
The Ghana–Ohio Romance Ring
A transnational dating-app scam, dismantled by the DOJ
A federal indictment named more than a dozen Ghanaian and Ohio-based co-conspirators in a long-running romance-fraud operation that targeted lonely Americans on dating apps. Multiple defendants have been sentenced; others await extradition.
- Loss
- Tens of millions across hundreds of US victims
- Victims
- Primarily older Americans on dating apps
- Region
- Ghana / United States (Ohio)
- Filed
Do Kwon
a.k.a. Kwon Do-hyung
Architect of the $40B Terra/Luna collapse
Co-founder of Terraform Labs whose algorithmic stablecoin UST de-pegged in May 2022, wiping out an estimated $40 billion in 72 hours. Convicted of fraud-related charges in Montenegro; extradited to the United States to face SDNY charges.
- Loss
- ~$40B in market value destroyed
- Victims
- Hundreds of thousands of retail crypto holders worldwide
- Region
- South Korea / Singapore / United States
- Filed
The Tinder Swindler
a.k.a. Shimon Hayut (legally Simon Leviev)
Romance-scam playbook, dating-app distribution
Israeli con artist who posed as the billionaire son of diamond magnate Lev Leviev to defraud women he met on Tinder out of an estimated $10 million. Convicted of fraud in Finland and Israel.
- Loss
- ~$10M across Europe
- Victims
- Dozens publicly identified; unknown total
- Region
- Europe / Israel
- Filed
Hushpuppi
a.k.a. Ramon Olorunwa Abbas
Instagram flexer turned BEC kingpin
Nigerian-born influencer who laundered hundreds of millions through business email compromise (BEC) scams while flexing private jets on Instagram. Sentenced to 11 years in US federal prison in November 2022.
- Loss
- $24M+ proven, ~$300M alleged
- Victims
- Banks, law firms, a US sports team, a Premier League club
- Region
- United Arab Emirates / United States
- Filed
Bernard Madoff
a.k.a. Bernard Lawrence Madoff
The $65 billion Ponzi king
Court-convicted operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Sentenced to 150 years in federal prison after defrauding nearly 37,000 investors across 136 countries.
- Loss
- ~$65 billion (paper losses)
- Victims
- ~37,000 across 136 countries
- Region
- United States
- Filed
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