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Famous faces who were defrauded

With big money potentially up for grabs, it’s no wonder scammers and fraudsters target the rich and famous. From extortion to Ponzi schemes, click or scroll through as we look at some of the well-known names who in some cases could’ve lost it all.
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Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

Actors Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon were two of many multimillionaires who fell victim to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes of all time. Bernie Madoff’s scheme conned investors out of a whopping $65 billion, and Sedgwick and Bacon were scammed out of an estimated $100 million. Many victims thought their fortunes were lost forever, but after Madoff’s high-profile trial the couple reclaimed some of their money, while Madoff was sentenced to 150 years behind bars.

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Elie Wiesel

The late Nobel Peace Prize laureate was hit very hard by Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Mr Wiesel’s charity Survivor’s Foundation for Humanity lost $15.2 million, which was “substantially all” of its assets, and he and his wife Marion lost their life savings. According to Mr Wiesel, spotting problems in the scheme wasn’t easy. He said there was a myth surrounding Madoff, that everything available through the scheme was so unique and special it had to remain a secret.
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John Malkovich

The American actor also fell for Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Things began to deteriorate for Madoff after clients requested a total of $7 billion back in returns, but he only had between $200 million and $300 million left to give back. Malkovich said he was financially ruined by the scam, and in 2011 went to court to try and reclaim the $2.3 million he lost. In November 2017 the US Department of Justice announced it would distribute $772.5 million to victims, including Malkovich.

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Liv Tyler

They say the face is the money-maker, and in Hollywood you know it’s got to be true. La La Land starlets are often linked with skin experts to make sure they’re camera ready, and Liv Tyler was no exception. Unfortunately, Maria Gabriela Hashemipour, “skin expert to the stars”, took Tyler for a financial ride. Hashemipour kept Tyler’s credit card numbers and made purchases on the cards. Tyler’s managers eventually noticed $214,000 charges on her credit card accounts that were not her own.
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Zsa Zsa Gabor

Another victim of Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme. Hungarian-American actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt invested with Madoff and were reported to have lost upwards of $10 million by 2009. According to Gabor’s attorney Chris Fields, four of his clients were affected by the scheme with a total of over $35 million lost.
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Sandy Koufax

Baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax took advice from his friend Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets, to invest with Bernie Madoff. Similar to other celebrities on the 163-page list, Koufax lost out in the scam. Although Koufax’s investment remains unknown, it can’t have been a small investment.
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Jack Nicholson

With a legendary career, Jack Nicholson is a big timer in Hollywood, but even the rich and famous can be duped. Tod Michael Volpe, a well-known Manhattan art dealer, built a reputation in the 90s advising Hollywood celebrities on how to build their art collections. Nicholson provided $610,000 to Volpe's investment fund, which would buy and sell artworks and split the profits. Except it wasn't. In 1998, Volpe received a 28-month prison for defrauding his clients of more than $1.9 million.
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Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller’s financial planner and manager Dana Giacchetto was sentenced to 57 months in prison in 2001 for looting $10 million from the accounts of famous clients – including $250,000 from Stiller, who thought he was a “hip, savvy investor”.
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Sting

Even with good intentions, there’s still a possibility of losing millions. This was the case for Sting when he hired showbusiness accountant Keith Moore as his financial advisor. In a scam that lasted over 15 years, Moore manged to swindle $10 million without Sting’s knowledge. Hoping the singer wouldn’t notice, he opened over 100 bank accounts, stole money from Sting’s accounts and launched a series of investments, including a chain of Indian restaurants in Australia.
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John McEnroe

Tennis legend John McEnroe, along with Robert De Niro, plus Bank of America, investment firms and art owners were duped in a high-flying $88 million art investment scam by one Lawrence Salander. The scheme lasted from 1994 to 2007, luring investors to pay for shares of ownership of works of art, and McEnroe lost $2 million after investing in a half-share in two paintings.
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Robert De Niro

King of the screen Robert De Niro also fell victim to Salander’s scam. Following the death of his painter father, De Niro was left with a large collection of art which he hoped to sell. And who better to enlist for help than Lawrence Salander? Salander essentially stole the proceeds of 12 works by the actor's father to settle his debts. He was later charged on multiple counts of grand larceny and was imprisoned for his $120 million scheme.
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Billy Joel

It’s often better to keep your finances and family separate, a lesson Billy Joel learned the hard way. Joel hired his former brother-in-law Frank Weber as his manager back in the 80s, which proved to be hellish. Joel discovered Weber had stolen money, and made investments without Joel’s knowledge. The final spends made by Weber totaled $90 million. The subsequent court battle was expensive and lengthy, and Joel only got back $8 million of his lost funds.
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Steven Spielberg

Even Hollywood’s favorite movie-maker wasn’t safe from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Spielberg invested some of his personal wealth with Madoff, along with funds from his charity, the Wunderkinder Foundation. With most of the finances tied up in the scheme, the Foundation’s funds were totally drained, with no other option for Spielberg than to close the organization.
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Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods wasn’t short of cash as one of the highest-paid athletes in the world. He fell victim to credit card fraud at the hand of Anthony Lamar Taylor, who got hold of Woods’ real name, social security number and date of birth very easily. Taylor applied for a driver’s license in the golfer’s real name and opened up numerous lines of credit with the stolen identity. Then the shopping spree started, totaling $50,000 of goods and services including a luxury car and 70-inch TV.
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Kiefer Sutherland

Actor Kiefer Sutherland lost almost a million dollars in a cattle investment scam. Sutherland made an investment of $869,000 in 2007 in cattle with steer-roping promoter and cattle manager Michael Wayne Carr, but it was nothing more than a load of bull. 

Now read about the real-life scammers who faked their way to fortunes

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