Great frauds in history: Meyer Blinder's Blind ’em & Rob ’em 
Great frauds in history: Meyer Blinder's Blind ’em & Rob ’em
Meyer Blinder’s brokerage firm cold-called unsuspecting punters and pumped shares in fraudulent shell companies while stiffing them with huge commiss…
1 Dec 2020
The authentic magic of Dolly Parton
The authentic magic of Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton, the warm-hearted chanteuse from Tennessee, blends old-fashioned etiquette with openness and is loved by millions. She also has a very sh…
30 Nov 2020
Great frauds in history: John MacGregor’s dodgy loans
Great frauds in history: John MacGregor’s dodgy loans
When the Royal British Bank fell on hard times, founder John MacGregor started falsifying the accounts and paying dividends out of capital. The bank f…
22 Nov 2020
Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci : the boffins behind the Covid-19 vaccine
Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci : the boffins behind the Covid-19 vaccine
Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci are an unassuming Turkish-German couple who had already made their fortune as biotech entrepreneurs when a strange new vi…
21 Nov 2020
Great frauds in history… William Strahan’s stolen bonds
Great frauds in history… William Strahan’s stolen bonds
Eton-educated William Snow, AKA William Strahan, inherited a huge fortune and joined the family bank. On the face of it he was a pillar of respectable…
18 Nov 2020
Ronald Perelman: the billionaire who is downsizing
Ronald Perelman: the billionaire who is downsizing
Ronald Perelman acquired a fortune as a dealmaker during the 1980s takeover boom. Now he seems to be quietly selling up.
9 Nov 2020
Great financial disasters in history: the collapse of Overend Gurney
Great financial disasters in history: the collapse of Overend Gurney
When 18th-century bank Overend, Gurney & Company's business loans started losing around £500,000 a year, it went bust, landing shareholders with a bil…
5 Nov 2020
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Donald Kendall: helping Pepsi win the cold war
Donald Kendall: helping Pepsi win the cold war
Donald Kendall was there to serve Nikita Khrushchev a Pepsi during a famous cold war détente with Richard Nixon. He went on to become a 20th-century m…
30 Oct 2020
Great frauds in history: Carlton Cushnie’s befuddling Ponzi scheme
Great frauds in history: Carlton Cushnie’s befuddling Ponzi scheme
Carlton Cushnie set up a finance company which was valued at an estimated £230m, but made only one trade finance loan in its existence, which actually…
28 Oct 2020
Craig Newmark: the nerd who shook up the media giants
Craig Newmark: the nerd who shook up the media giants
Twenty-five years ago, Craig Newmark lost his job at a brokerage and fired off an email to friends. That seeded a venture, Craigslist, that dominates …
26 Oct 2020
Great frauds in history: the Independent West Middlesex Fire and Life Assurance Company's early Ponzi scheme
Great frauds in history: the Independent West Middlesex Fire and Life Assurance Company's early Ponzi scheme
The Independent West Middlesex Fire and Life Assurance Company (IWM) offered annuities and life insurance policies at rates that proved too good to be…
21 Oct 2020
Mukesh Ambani: the Indian billionaire eyeing global expansion
Mukesh Ambani: the Indian billionaire eyeing global expansion
Mukesh Ambani is already the richest man in India by a large margin, but his ambitions do not end there. He wants India to be at the front of the worl…
19 Oct 2020
Great frauds in history... John Factor’s penny-stock scams
Great frauds in history... John Factor’s penny-stock scams
John Factor sold worthless penny stocks through a boiler room operation, ramping the price via his financial newsletters. But he was never held to ac…
14 Oct 2020
Mohsin and Zuber Issa : garage tycoons who put Asda in their trolley
Mohsin and Zuber Issa : garage tycoons who put Asda in their trolley
The supermarket’s new owners are Mohsin and Zuber Issa, two brothers from Blackburn who started with a rundown petrol station 20 years ago. But their …
8 Oct 2020
Reed Hastings: Netflix founder who looms over Hollywood
Reed Hastings: Netflix founder who looms over Hollywood
Reed Hastings turned Netflix – a DVD rental service rejected by Blockbuster – into a global streaming giant that has redefined the entertainment indus…
4 Oct 2020
Great frauds in history: Alan Bond’s debt-fuelled empire
Great frauds in history: Alan Bond’s debt-fuelled empire
Alan Bond built an empire that encompassed brewing, mining, television on unsustainable amounts of debt, which led to his downfall and imprisonment.
1 Oct 2020
Trevor Milton: big dreamer wakes to a hard reality
Trevor Milton: big dreamer wakes to a hard reality
Trevor Milton wanted to be the next Elon Musk, and planned to revolutionise transport with hydrogen-powered trucks. His dreams are unravelling amid al…
27 Sep 2020
Great frauds in history: the Pigeon King’s Ponzi scheme
Great frauds in history: the Pigeon King’s Ponzi scheme
Pigeon-fancier Arlan Galbraith claimed to have created a new breed of elite racing pigeon, but his Ponzi scheme defrauded investors of over £200m.
23 Sep 2020
Terence Conran: the man who banished the spam fritter
Terence Conran: the man who banished the spam fritter
Terence Conran, who has died aged 88, introduced a country of grey houses and colourless mackintoshes to the dolce vita. He instigated a revolution in…
22 Sep 2020
Great frauds in history: Martin Grass’s debt binge
Great frauds in history: Martin Grass’s debt binge
AS CEO of pharmacy chain Rite Aid. Martin Grass borrowed heavily to fund a string of acquisitions, then cooked the books to manage the debt, inflating…
16 Sep 2020
Daniel Loeb: fiery activist goes on a buying spree
Daniel Loeb: fiery activist goes on a buying spree
Daniel Loeb is known as a sharp-tongued investor who buys stakes in companies and then shakes them up. But the pandemic caught him flat-footed and he …
14 Sep 2020
Great frauds in history: how Joyti De-Laurey became “the Picasso of con artists”
Great frauds in history: how Joyti De-Laurey became “the Picasso of con artists”
Joyti De-Laurey forged the signatures of her bosses at Goldman Sachs and started writing cheques to herself. Over many years, she netted £4.3m.
10 Sep 2020