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The Biggest Ponzi Schemes in Modern History

Some things simply sound too good to be true, but when money is involved, our judgement can become clouded.

This is often the case with Ponzi schemes, a type of financial fraud that lures investors by promising abnormally high returns. Money brought in by new members is used to pay the scheme’s founders, as well as its earlier investors.

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, an Italian who became infamous in the 1920s for claiming he could double his clients’ money within 90 days. Since then, numerous Ponzi schemes have been orchestrated around the globe.

To help you learn more about these sophisticated crimes, this infographic examines some of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern history.

Ponzi Schemes in the 20th Century

The 1990s saw a number of large Ponzi schemes worth upwards of $500 million.

In many cases, these schemes thrived by taking advantage of the unsuspecting public who often lacked any knowledge of investing. Caritas, for example, was a Ponzi scheme based in Romania that marketed itself as a “self-help game” for the poor.

The scheme was initially very successful, tricking millions of people into making deposits by offering the chance to earn an 800% return after three months. This was not sustainable, and Caritas was eventually unable to distribute further winnings.

Caritas operated for only two years, but its “success” was undeniable. In 1993, it was estimated that a third of the country’s money was circulating through the scheme.

Ponzi Schemes in the 21st Century

The American public has fallen victim to numerous multi-billion dollar Ponzi schemes since the beginning of the 21st century.

Many of these schemes have made major headlines, but much less is said about the thousands of everyday Americans that were left in financial ruin.

For victims of the Madoff Investment Scandal, receiving any form of compensation has been a drawn-out process. In 2018, 10 years after the scheme was uncovered, a court-appointed trustee managed to recover $13 billion by liquidating Madoff’s firm and personal assets.

As NPR reported, investors may recover up to 60 to 70 percent of their initial investment only. For victims who had to delay retirement or drastically alter their lifestyles, this compensation likely provides little solace.

Do the Crime, Pay the Time

Running a Ponzi scheme is likely to land you in jail for a long time, at least in the U.S.

In 2009, for example, 71-year-old Bernie Madoff pled guilty to 11 federal felonies and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. That’s 135 years longer than the average U.S. murder conviction.

Outside of the U.S., it’s a much different story. Weaker regulation and enforcement, particularly in developing countries, means a number of schemes are ongoing today.

Sergei Mavrodi, known for running the Russian Ponzi scheme MMM, started a new organization shortly after being released from prison in 2011. Now known as MMM Global, the self-described “social financial network” has established a base in several Southeast Asian and African countries.

If you or someone you know is worried about falling victim to a Ponzi scheme, this checklist from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be a useful resource.

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Ranked: the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2021

This year has been rife with pandemic-induced changes that have shifted corporate priorities—and yet, innovation has remained a top concern among corporations worldwide.

Using data from the annual ranking done by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) using a poll of 1,600 global innovation professionals, this graphic ranks the top 50 most innovative companies in 2021.

We’ll dig into a few of the leading companies, along with their innovative practices, below.

Most Innovative Companies: A Breakdown of the Leaderboard

To create the top 50 innovative company ranking, BCG uses four variables:

• Global “Mindshare”: The number of votes from all innovation executives.
• Industry Peer Review: The number of votes from executives in a company’s industry.
• Industry Disruption: A diversity index to measure votes across industries.
• Value Creation: Total share return.

For the second year in a row, Apple claims the top spot on this list. Here’s a look at the full ranking for 2021:

	Company	Industry	HQ	Change from 2020
1	Apple	Technology	U.S.	—
2	Alphabet	Technology	U.S.	—
3	Amazon	Consumer Goods	U.S.	—
4	Microsoft	Technology	U.S.	—
5	Tesla	Transport & Energy	U.S.	+6
6	Samsung	Technology	South Korea	-1
7	IBM	Technology	U.S.	+1
8	Huawei	Technology	China	-2
9	Sony	Consumer Goods	Japan	—
10	Pfizer	Healthcare	U.S.	Return
11	Siemens	Technology	Germany	+10
12	LG Electronics	Consumer Goods	South Korea	+6
13	Facebook	Technology	U.S.	-3
14	Alibaba	Consumer Goods	China	-7
15	Oracle	Technology	U.S.	+10
16	Dell	Technology	U.S.	+4
17	Cisco Systems	Technology	U.S.	-5
18	Target	Consumer Goods	U.S.	+4
19	HP Inc.	Technology	U.S.	-4
20	Johnson & Johnson	Healthcare	U.S.	+6
21	Toyota	Transport & Energy	Japan	+20
22	Salesforce	Technology	U.S.	+13
23	Walmart	Consumer Goods	U.S.	-10
24	Nike	Consumer Goods	U.S.	-8
25	Lenovo	Technology	Hong Kong SAR	Return
26	Tencent	Consumer Goods	China	-12
27	Procter & Gamble	Consumer Goods	U.S.	+12
28	Coca-Cola	Consumer Goods	U.S.	+20
29	Abbott Labs	Healthcare	U.S.	New
30	Bosch	Transport & Energy	Germany	+3
31	Xiaomi	Technology	China	-7
32	Ikea	Consumer Goods	Netherlands	Return
33	Fast Retailing	Consumer Goods	Japan	Return
34	Adidas	Consumer Goods	Germany	Return
35	Merck & Co.	Healthcare	U.S.	Return
36	Novartis	Healthcare	Switzerland	+11
37	Ebay	Consumer Goods	U.S.	Return
38	PepsiCo	Consumer Goods	U.S.	Return
39	Hyundai	Transport & Energy	South Korea	Return
40	SAP	Technology	Germany	-13
41	Inditex	Consumer Goods	Spain	Return
42	Moderna	Healthcare	U.S.	New
43	Philips	Healthcare	Netherlands	-20
44	Disney	Media & Telecomms	U.S.	Return
45	Mitsubishi	Transport & Energy	Japan	New
46	Comcast	Media & Telecomms	U.S.	New
47	GE	Transport & Energy	U.S.	Return
48	Roche	Healthcare	Switzerland	Return
49	AstraZeneca	Healthcare	UK	New
50	Bayer	Healthcare	Germany	-12

One company worth touching on is Pfizer, a returnee from previous years that ranked 10th in this year’s ranking. It’s no surprise that Pfizer made the list, considering its instrumental role in the fight against COVID-19. In partnership with BioNTech, Pfizer produced a COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year. This is impressive considering that, historically, vaccine development could take up to a decade to complete.

Pfizer is just one of four COVID-19 vaccine producers to appear on the list this year—Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca also made the cut.

Meanwhile, in a completely different industry, Toyota snagged the 21st spot on this year’s list, up 20 places compared to the rankings in the previous year. This massive jump can be signified by the company’s recent $400 million investment into a company set to build flying electric cars.

While we often think of R&D and innovation as being synonymous, the former is just one innovation technique that’s helped companies earn a spot on the list. Other companies have innovated in different ways, like streamlining processes to increase efficiency.

For instance, in 2021, Coca-Cola performed an analysis of their beverage portfolio and ended up cutting their brand list in half, from 400 to 200 global brands. This ability to pare down and pivot could be a reason behind its 20 rank increase from 2020.

Innovation Creates Value

As this year’s ranking indicates, innovation comes in many forms. But, while there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, there is one fairly consistent innovation trend—the link between innovation and value.

In fact, according to historical data from BCG, the correlation between value and innovation has grown even stronger over the last two decades.

For example, in 2020, a portfolio that was theoretically invested in BCG’s most innovative companies would have performed 17% better than the MSCI World Index—which wasn’t the case back in 2005.

And yet, despite innovation’s value, many companies can’t reap the benefits that innovation offers because they aren’t ready to scale their innovative practices.

The Innovation Readiness Gap

BCG uses several metrics to gauge a company’s “innovation readiness,” such as the strength of its talent and culture, its organization ecosystems, and its ability to track performance.

According to BCG’s analysis, only 20% of companies surveyed were ready to scale on innovation.

What’s holding companies back from reaching their innovation potential? The most significant gap seems to be in what BCG calls innovation practices—things like project management or the ability to execute an idea that’s both efficient and consistent with an overarching strategy.

To overcome this obstacle, BCG says companies need to foster a “one-team mentality” to increase interdepartmental collaboration and align team incentives, so everyone is working towards the same goal.

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The Top 100 Companies of the World: U.S. vs Everyone

When it comes to breaking down the top 100 companies of the world, the United States still commands the largest slice of the pie.

Throughout the 20th century and before globalization reached its current peaks, American companies made the country an economic powerhouse and the source of a majority of global market value.

But even as countries like China have made headway with multi-billion dollar companies of their own, and the market’s most important sectors have shifted, the U.S. has managed to stay on top.

How do the top 100 companies of the world stack up? This visualization pulls from PwC’s annual ranking of the world’s largest companies, using market capitalization data from May 2021.

Where are the World’s Largest Companies Located?

The world’s top 100 companies account for a massive $31.7 trillion in market cap, but that wealth is not distributed evenly.

Between companies, there’s a wide range of market caps. For example, the difference between the world’s largest company (Apple) and the 100th largest (Anheuser-Busch) is $1.9 trillion.

And between countries, that divide becomes even more stark. Of the 16 countries with companies making the top 100 ranking, the U.S. accounts for 65% of the total market cap value.

Location	# of Companies	Market Capitalization (May 2021)
United States	59	$20.55T
China	14	$4.19T
Saudi Arabia	1	$1.92T
Switzerland	3	$0.82T
Netherlands	3	$0.58T
Japan	3	$0.56T
France	2	$0.55T
Germany	3	$0.46T
South Korea	1	$0.43T
United Kingdom	3	$0.43T
India	2	$0.34T
Ireland	2	$0.34T
Australia	1	$0.16T
Denmark	1	$0.16T
Canada	1	$0.13T
Belgium	1	$0.13T

Compared to the U.S., other once-prominent markets like Japan, France, and the UK have seen their share of the world’s top 100 companies falter over the years. In fact, all of Europe accounts for just $3.46 trillion or 11% of the total market cap value of the list.

A major reason for the U.S. dominance in market values is a shift in important industries and contributors. Of the world’s top 100 companies, 52% were based in either technology or consumer discretionary, and the current largest players like Apple, Alphabet, Tesla, and Walmart are all American-based.

The Top 100 Companies of the World: Competition From China

The biggest and most impressive competitor to the U.S. is China.

With 14 companies of its own in the world’s top 100, China accounted for $4.19 trillion or 13% of the top 100’s total market cap value. That includes two of the top 10 firms by market cap, Tencent and Alibaba.

Impressively, China’s rise in market value isn’t limited to well-known tech and consumer companies. The country’s second biggest contributing industry to the top 100 firms was finance, once also the most valuable sector in the U.S. (currently 4th behind tech, consumer discretionary, and health care).

Other notable countries on the list include Saudi Arabia and its state-owned oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco, which is the third largest company in the world. Despite only having one company in the top 100, Saudi Arabia had the third-largest share of the top 100’s total market cap value.

As Europe continues to lose ground year-over-year and the rest of Asia struggles to keep up, the top 100 companies might become increasingly concentrated in just the U.S. and China. The question is, will the imbalance of global market value start to even out, or become even bigger?

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