Great frauds in history: Joel Steinger and the Mutual Benefits Corporation

Joel Steinger and the Mutual Benefits Corporation specialised in selling viaticals, shares in the life-insurance policies of the terminally ill.

Joel Steinger was born in Brooklyn in 1949 and in later life became friends with the gangster Meyer Lansky (known as the "Mob's Accountant"), after his brother redecorated Lansky's house. Steinger eventually married the daughter of a Miami banker, who is alleged to have been one of Lansky's associates. After a spell working at his father-in-law's import/export firm, Steinger set up a boiler room selling phoney commodity options, resulting in a conviction for fraud and a lifetime ban from the securities industry. This didn't stop him running a variety of scams related to investments in everything from oil wells to diet pizza. In 1994 Steinger set up the Mutual Benefits Corporation (MBC).

What was the scam?

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

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