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40 Companies, Corporations and CEOs Who Could Use a Visit to the Boo Box From ‘Hook’

Frauds and fails heard ‘round the world

40 Companies, Corporations and CEOs Who Could Use a Visit to the Boo Box From ‘Hook’

February 11, 2025

The thesis statement of this list is basically that there is no correlation between intelligence and wealth. Take it from us, plenty of highly intelligent people don’t end up making a ton of money. Then take it from this collection of corporate calamities and failed fraudulent efforts, plenty of dummies have made some serious scratch.

Did they end up holding onto it? Let’s find out now!

40

Red Granite Pictures

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS THE PRODUCTION GOT INTO TROUBLE WITH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET SI The film's production company, Red Granite Pictures, was forced to pay around $60 million to the U.S. government after being sued for using money misappropriated from a Malaysian state fund to finance the film. CRACKED.COM — Source

39

Barrick Gold Corp

Evil Things Huge Companies Have Done - In 2009, Canadian mining company Berrick Gold Corporation supplied shelter and supplies to a local Papua New Gu — Source: Amnesty International

38

Gerald Ratner

CRACKED CORPORATE CRASH & BURN SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD Gerald Ratner, the CEO of a jewelry group, made a speech in 1991 that included the musing: People say, 'how can you sell this for such a low price?' I say 'because it's total crap. His careless words are now known as doing a Ratner, and cost his company a whooping £500 million.

37

Elon Musk’s Financial Losses

CRACKED $182 BILLION IN A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR In January 2023, Elon Musk had lost a huge amount of money - around $182 billion - since November 2021, which was the biggest loss of personal fortune ever recorded. — Source

36

Quaker

CRACKED EAPLE APPLE EACH TEA e NATURAL UNI STRAWBERRY onapp MON TEA 200 5 Snapple i D. NATURAL MANGO MADNESS - napp KI NATURAL ( ACARD Snapple & e NATURAL la I apple NATURAL Lee's VIII - LAKOR I ABI WBED H names 200 VM E names 212 THE - I names BLE QUAKER Quaker Oats Co. agreed to sell Snapple Beverage Corp. to Triarc Cos. for $300 million, only 27 months after Quaker spent $1.7 billion to buy the maker of trendy drinks, resulting in a loss of $1.4 billion for Quaker. — LA Times / PR News Wire

35

British Airways

BRITISH BIG OOPS! LOSING TENS OF MILLIONS ON A PROMOTION In 1992, Hoover offered British customers two free flights to the U.S. if they bought something worth more than £100. Unfortunately, this promotion ended up costing the company £48 million, and three senior executives were let go. CRACKED — Fasttailwind/Shutterstock
Marketing Week

34

Disney

CRACKED JOHN CARTER Disney spent a ton of money making and promoting the 2012 live-action sci-fi movie John Carter, which was based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the end, they lost at least $200 million. $200+ million — Slashfilm

33

Grumman Aerospace Corporation

There's a forgotten experimental hovertrain rotting in Pueblo, Colorado. It was a collaboration between NASA, MIT, Princeton, and the Grumman Aerospace Corporation, but the money ran out in 1975, so they just abandoned the prototype. CRACKED.COM — Source: Pueblo Railway

32

Dumb and Dumber To

'Dumb & Dumber To' was funded using money stolen from a Malaysian government investment fund. CRACKED.COM Corrupt officials and finan- ciers stole $4.5 billion from 1Malaysia Development Ber- had between 2009 and 2015, laundering the money through a series of shell companies with bank ac- counts in the US and abroad. — Source

31

Warren Buffett

CRACKED WARREN BUFFETT Warren Buffett's most gruesome mistake was buying Dexter Shoe in 1993, which eventually collapsed due to cheap foreign imports, costing him 25,203 Class A shares in Berkshire Hathaway, worth about $8.7 billion today. — Business Insider

30

Crypto

Matt Damon's crypto firm sent someone $10.5 million instead of $100, and they can't get it back. GRAGKED.COM Crypto.com didn't discover that millions of dollars had gone to an Australian woman until seven months later, at which point the money was either spent or transferred.

29

Nike Swoosh Designer

The Nike Swoosh designer got 35 bucks nike GRACKED.COM Graphic designer Carolyn Davidson came up with the now-iconic Swoosh in 1971. She was paid a paltry $35 by the CEO at the time, who also made it clear he didn't even really like the design. (Thankfully, a decade later, a new CEO gifted her Nike stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars).

28

Pets.com

CRACKED PETS.COM Pets.com had a really successful initial public offering in February 2000, raising a whopping $82.5 million. Unfortunately, just nine months later, they had to file for bankruptcy. $82.5 billion — Investopedia / CDC

27

Big Bailout

CRACKED BAILOUT: $700 BILLION The U.S. government has spent a whopping $700 billion to save the financial system in 2008, which is likely the most money they've ever spent on a bailout. — Source

26

North Korea

North Korea's military used Bitcoin to steal over half a billion dollars. They stole it from online trading platforms in 2017 and 2018, and used blockchain technology (the basis of Bitcoin) to be able to do it undetected. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

25

FTX

CRACKED $14.6 BILLION IN A DAY In November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of FTX, lost a lot of money - about $14.6 billion - in a single day, after he made a deal with Binance to get some help. — Source

24

Stan Lee’s Business Manager

Stan Lee's business manager stole not just millions of dollars, but also his blood. Besides swindling him out of money, he also allegedly had a nurse take blood from Lee, which he then sold in Las Vegas as a collectible for thousands of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vulture

23

News Corp.

CRACKED NECK SOUTH its AX #News Corporation today NEWS CORP. News Corp. sold Myspace for $35 million, a huge loss compared to the $580 million they paid for it in 2005. — NPR / Fortune

22

Gambled Away $100 Million

CRACKED OVER $100 MILLION GAMBLED AWAY One businessman lost more than $100 million in 2007 at a chain of casinos in Las Vegas. It's said that he was given alcohol and drugs to keep him gambling. — Source

21

A Totally Fake Hedge Fund as a Wedding Present

Kim Kardashian's ex-husband got scammed by his wedding guest. Kris Humphries lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a scam that involved a totally fake hedge fund by one Andrey C. Hicks. CRACKED.COM — Source: US Magazine

20

Beanie Babies

The creator of Beanie Babies was charged with tax fraud. The billionaire creator Ty Warner had to pay a $100,000 fine but no jail time (?!) for hiding millions of dollars. CRACKED.COM

19

Brazilian Oil Tycoon Elke Batista

CRACKED TUTE MILK $33 BILLION IN 18 MONTHS Eike Batista, a Brazilian oil tycoon, went from an estimated wealth of $34 billion to less than $1 billion in just 18 months. Until Elon came along, that made him a contender for the person who has lost the most money in the history of the world. — Source

18

Big Dig

CRACKED BIG DIG IN BOSTON The Big Dig in Boston was a huge highway project that was the most complex and challenging ever in the US. It was supposed to cost $2.56 billion, but ended up costing a whopping $14.8 billion - five times more than originally thought. over $12 billion — NASA

17

Elizabeth Holmes

CRACKED $4.5 BILLION LITERALLY OVERNIGHT Elizabeth Holmes had a lot of money, estimated to be around $4.5 billion, but it all disappeared in a single night. Her company, Theranos, had promised a revolutionary blood-testing technology, but it didn't work out as planned (to put it mildly). — Chicago Tribune

16

Microsoft

CRACKED NOKIA 3 def g 1 2 abc 4 b ghi mno 5 jkl 7 pqrs wx 8 tuv * 0 - MICROSOFT Microsoft has wasted at least $8 billion on its failed Nokia experiment, and CEO Satya Nadella's vision for the company has shifted away from a devices and services focus, resulting in the end of Microsoft's mobile subsidiary. — The Verge / Engadget

15

Excel

10 Insert Page Layout Cut FATAL x ERROR $24 MILLION Copy DOLLARS LOST In May 2020, a Canadian power Formal generator power transmission bought many hedging U.S. too contracts at higher prices than they needed to. The CEO said it was literally a cut-and-paste error in an Excel spreadsheet. В A CRACKED — Source

14

Burt’s Bees

CRACKED BURT'S BEES WAS TAKEN FROM BURT In the '90s, Burt Shavitz, the face of Burt's Bees, had to give up his stake in the company to his business partner and girlfriend, Roxanne Quimby, for much less than it was worth. Quimby then sold 80% of Burt's Bees for a whopping $177 million. — Source

13

Twitter

CRACKED ELON MUSK Elon Musk's net worth has dropped $9 billion since buying Twitter, and he is now facing a number of financial challenges in owning the company. — Source

12

Fox News

Fox News used the fact that food stamp fraud cost the government $70 million to argue that it may be time to stop the program. NEWS insider LATEST TRENDING PEOPLE SHOWS TRUMP TRANSITION Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program? f share this email With a budget of around $67 billion, the money lost to fraud actually made up less than 1% 99.9% of the of total food budget. stamp In other words, about N-T HIDITI reached the people who money nT successfully were meant to have it. CRACKED.COM — Source: 23 Stats That Are Misleading B.S. (But Technically Correct)

11

Citibank

CRACKED CITIBANK Citibank made a mistake and accidentally sent $900 million to the wrong people, and the lenders refused to return the money. The lenders were taking advantage of the situation due to a longer running saga between them and Revlon, the company that borrowed the money. — NPR / FT

10

Herbalife

An Herbalife insider once admitted on camera that the company was a scam. Lose Weight Now HERBALIFE. Ask Me How! Independent Distributor Investor Bill Ackman claimed Herbalife's nutrition clubs, private settings where Herbalife distributors sell the company's products and recruit new members, amount to a pyramid scheme. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — CNBC

9

Average CEO Income

CRACKED.COM The average CEO has made more money by lunchtime on January 2 than the average worker will make all year. — 28 Money Stats To Know (Or Not)

8

Taxes

WEIRD WORLD The government wants to tax bribe money and stolen goods, too. No, really - the IRS recently stated that you have to report any bribes you got, or anything you stole, as income. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Sears

Sears tried to scam the inventor of a quick-release ratchet. SEARS Peter Roberts sold his in- vention to Sears for $10,000 who said that it was not worth very much. Sears then went on to make $44 million selling it, so he sued them for fraud and was awarded $1 million. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Time / Wikimedia

6

Churches

IF CHURCHES PAID TAXES.... UNITED STATES IRS OF AMERICA 2013 TAX BILL s $ $ $83.5 BILLION -TAX EXEMPTIONS $$$ -SUBSIDIES paid =$0.00 IT WOULD PAY FOR ALL THE FOOD STAMPS FOR EVERY PERSON ON WELFARE FOOD D $TAMP STAMP STAMP $76 BILLION STAMP WITH ENOUGH LEFT OVER TO HOUSE THE ENTIRE HOMELESS POPULATION GRAGKED CON — 23 Reality-Shifting Comparisons About Money

5

Ross Perot

CRACKED ALMOST HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY On April 22, 1986, Ross Perot lost a huge amount of money - the most ever in one day, at that point - when the stock of his company, E.D.S., dropped from $150 to $85. It was a loss of $450 million. — NY Times / CNN

4

Fraud Acquittal

In 2005, a CEO was miraculously acquitted in a $2,7 billion fraud case. EAM UNITED NOTE RAL Fifteen execs, including five finance chiefs, testified he was in on the fraud since the start, but the jury didn't believe them. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Facts To Make Us Sound Smarter And/Or More Informed

3

Samsung

CRACKED SAMSUNG Samsung Securities Co CEO Koo Sung-hoon resigned after the company was punished by South Korea's financial regulator for an employee's error that sparked a $105 billion ghost stock blunder. The company was handed a six month partial suspension of its operations and its chief was suspended for three months. — Reuters / The Investor

2

Dennis Kozlowski

When Dennis Kozlowski was indicted for fraud the investigators found a gold and burgundy shower curtain worth $6,000 in his maid's bathroom. Kozlowski

1

Military Spending

The U.S. Army 2015 financial statements had 6.5 trillion dollars' worth of spending without a paper trail. That makes those statements effectively use

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