Top 10 Worst Corporate Scandals

Elizabeth Holmes raised $700 million by claiming her Edison device could run hundreds of tests from a single drop of blood — the technology never worked as promised.

VW installed defeat devices in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to cheat emissions tests, ultimately costing the company over $33 billion in fines and settlements.

The German fintech darling fabricated €1.9 billion in cash balances across Asian bank accounts, fooling regulators and auditors until a Financial Times investigation unraveled it all.

The former NASDAQ chairman ran a $65 billion Ponzi scheme for decades, wiping out charities, retirees, and hedge funds in the largest investment fraud in history.

CEO Bernie Ebbers orchestrated $11 billion in fraudulent accounting entries to inflate earnings, resulting in the then-largest corporate bankruptcy and a 25-year prison sentence.

Employees opened 3.5 million unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet aggressive sales targets, revealing a toxic culture that prioritized cross-selling over customer trust.

The 158-year-old investment bank used Repo 105 transactions to disguise $50 billion in liabilities, and its September 2008 bankruptcy triggered the global financial crisis.

Sam Bankman-Fried misappropriated $8 billion in customer deposits to fund Alameda Research and political donations, collapsing his $32 billion exchange virtually overnight.

Cost-cutting decisions led to the largest marine oil spill in history, killing 11 workers and dumping 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.