QUIZ: How Much Do You Know About Greed?
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Endless volumes have been written about the deadly sin known as greed. While most people condemn it in polite company, the view that "greed is good" has nonetheless gone mainstream. People like radio host Neal Boortz and the late economist Milton Friedman have openly embraced it, claiming that without greed, Americans would not have the gung ho spirit of capitalist competition that's made their country great.
Unfortunately, some people go beyond the spirit of the free market and venture into criminal territory. We're not talking about thugs holding up a 7-11 for $100 and a spool of lottery tickets --- these are people who have concocted schemes that have netted millions of dollars and destroyed many lives.
How much do you know about greed in 21st century America? Take the following quiz and find out.
Posted 22 Jan 2010
Samuel Israel III wrote the theme song from what television show on his SUV in an attempt to fake his own death?
- All In The Family
- M*A*S*H*
- Six Feet Under
- The Sopranos
Samuel Israel III was a hedge fund manager who had earned a 20-year prison sentence for swindling his clients out of $450 million. On the day he was to start serving his time, he disappeared, and his SUV was found abandoned with "Suicide is Painless," the theme song from "M*A*S*H*," scrawled in the dust on its hood. Israel had tried to make it look as though he had committed suicide, which no one believed for a minute. He finally turned himself in to authorities in July 2008.
Hedge fund manager Kirk Wright routinely exaggerated the sum of money in his clients' accounts by what amount?
- 100 times
- 200 times
- 500 times
- 1000 times
Kirk Wright was the CEO of International Management Associates, a hedge fund business based in Atlanta. Over a ten-year period, the company kept offices in three other cities and had thousands of clients worth millions of dollars in investments. The only hiccup was that Wright had been reporting investment gains that were 200 times greater than the reality --- in fact, Kirk had either lost his clients' money on bad investments or spent it on himself. Once arrested, Wright faced a mutli-million-dollar fine and upwards of 700 years in prison, but he committed suicide before facing sentencing.
While investigating real estate developer Raffaello Follieri in 2008, FBI agents seized the diaries of what actress?
- Anne Hathaway
- Emily Blunt
- Kate Hudson
- Scarlett Johansson
In 2008, actress Anne Hathaway had it all. The fabulous young star of "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Brokeback Mountain" had hit movies, critical accolades and a high-powered boyfriend in real estate developer Raffaello Follieri. One small problem: Follieri had embezzled $50 million from an investor affiliated with the Catholic church in the creatively named scandal, "Vati-Con." When FBI agents raided his Trump Tower apartment, Hathaway's diaries were among the many items seized. However, she was never charged with any wrongdoing. Follieri was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.
How long was former rabbi Sholam Weiss' prison sentence for fraud and money laundering?
- 45 years
- 245 years
- 445 years
- 845 years
When Sholam Weiss committed 78 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering, he assumed that cash was the only thing that he would receive in abundance. As it turned out, Weiss received something else in abundance --- prison time. He was fined almost $250 million in penalties and restitution, but the kicker was an unprecedented sentence of 845 years in prison, easily the longest sentence ever given for a white-collar crime. The Yeshiva-educated Weiss currently has a projected release date of November 23, 2754, just in time for Hannukah.
How much did defense contractors Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten charge the Defense Department for two nineteen cent washers?
- $29
- $3,609
- $156,968
- $998,798
In the 1980's, much was made of a report that the military was buying hammers for $900 a pop. Defense contractors Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten apparently took inspiration from this, and then adjusted for inflation. They routinely billed the Defense Department ridiculously inflated costs, which were paid automatically 112 times. The fraudulent invoices included a nine-dollar elbow pipe for over $445,000 and two 19-cent washers for $998,798, all paid for with your tax dollars. Rather than go to jail, Wooten took her own life in October 2006, leaving behind a suicide note and a check made out to the Defense Department for $4.5 million. It is not known what she wrote in the memo field.
The Black Widow murderers staged the deaths of their victims in Los Angeles to look like what type of accident?
- Electrocution
- Hit-and-run
- Salmonella poisoning
- Spontaneous human combustion
Some elderly women amuse themselves by feeding squirrels from a park bench and playing gin rummy. Septuagenarians Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt preferred instead to shelter homeless men, take out insurance policies in their names, kill them in apparent hit-and-run accidents, and then collect $2.8 million in payouts. The police eventually tied the crimes to the women, and once in custody, Rutterschmidt scolded Golay for being greedy and taking out 23 policies on a single victim. Unluckily for her, she didn't realize that they were being secretly filmed by the FBI, and this footage was a key element in their convictions.
What was the amount of the criminal settlement Pfizer paid for marketing the drug Bextra?
- $1 million
- $10 million
- $100 million
- Over $1 billion
Bextra was an arthritis medication manufactured by Searle, the company that created the first oral contraceptive in 1960. It was taken off the market four years after its release due to an increased risk of heart attack. Pfizer, who had acquired Searle in a merger with Pharmacia & UpJohn, were required to pay a $1.1 billion criminal settlement, the largest ever imposed. The company was also fined over $2 billion for marketing the drug "with the intent to defraud or mislead," and for bribing healthcare providers in exchange for prescribing the drug to their patients.
Jeanetta Standefor operated a Ponzi scheme that targeted what ethnic group in Southern California?
- African-Americans
- Asians
- Jews
- Muslims
Jeanetta Standefor operated a real estate scam that targeted Southern California's African-American community. Standefor defrauded her victims by hosting seminars featuring phony investors who testified to the vast opulence that her group had bestowed upon them. In reality, none of the money invested was used in a single real estate transaction, and Standefor instead spent almost $2 million of it on cars, jewelry and her own wedding. Hopefully, she enjoyed those things, because she had to cough up more than four times that amount as part of a 2008 plea deal.
Attorneys William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. stole from a settlement fund for users of what drug?
- Fen-phen
- Glucophage
- Meridia
- Xenical
At first, fen-phen was hailed as a miracle weight-loss drug. However, it was recalled for causing such side effects as heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. Attorneys William Galleon and Shirley Cunningham, Jr. brought a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer, but they couldn't resist the lure of that sweet, sweet litigation money, and they took $200 million from the settlement fund. Both attorneys went to prison, but a third, Melbourne Mills, was acquitted for being too mentally impaired by chronic drunkenness to take part in the scheme.
Dr. Robert Stokes fraudulently billed insurance companies for removing benign tissue from what part of his patients' bodies?
- Brain
- Liver
- Skin
- Stomach
Michigan dermatologist Robert Stokes removed benign lesions from his patients' skin and then billed insurers for the unnecessary procedures, raking in $2 million in the process. At his trial, Stokes wasn't above asking the judge for lenience. "There is much more to my life than the actions that led to my conviction," he said, citing his credentials as an amateur soccer coach. Somehow, the judge was unmoved by this fact, and he sentenced Stokes to ten years in prison for health care fraud.
Your score:
- Mammon
You are the biblical god of greed.
American Greed airs Friday, Feb. 5 at 10p | 1a ET - Gordon Gekko
Greed is good.
American Greed airs Friday, Feb. 5 at 10p | 1a ET - Ebeneezer Scrooge
Bah, humbug!
American Greed airs Friday, Feb. 5 at 10p | 1a ET
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
