12 Celebrities Who Were Scammed For Millions
We typically associate fame with wealth until finding a star with the sour face after learning they can no longer mess up some commas because the checks stopped coming in.
photo: WENN
The only thing worse than falling off is being a victim to so-called friend who was trying to stick you for your paper. All robberies don’t happen at gunpoint, and these 12 celebrities who were scammed for millions found that out when their finances went on an unplanned diet.
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Photo: WENN
photo: WENN
Dwight Howard
During the early part of his pro career in Florida, D-12 was one of the many high-dollar clients fleeced by shamed “businessman” Claudio Osorio. In 2013, Osorio copped a plea to charges of wire fraud.
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Rihanna
In 2012, Rihanna sued the accounting firm Berdon and former employees Michael Mitnick and Peter Gounis for mismanaging her finances and allegedly costing her millions. Apparently she had a solid case, since the suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
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Jacob The Jeweler
As if getting hit with a 30-month sentence wasn’t bad enough, celebrity gemologist, Jacob “The Jeweler” Arabo was one of the many defrauded of millions by Kenneth Ira Starr in a Ponzi scheme. Jacob allegedly lost upwards of $14 million.
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Bill Cosby
Do remember that 2014 wasn’t the first time Bill Cosby was in trouble for allegedly trying to share his pudding pop with women. Cosby avoided being scammed by taking the human byproduct of his extramarital affair to court for extortion. Instead of rolling with the six-figure hush money settlement, Jackson tried to get $40 million out of Cos.
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Kim Kardashian
It wasn’t exactly a high-tech operation, but Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner were among the many whose credit card information was used by Kyah Green and her 19-year-old son Luis Flores in 2013.
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Nicole Murphy
When you go from sitting on $15 million to working the reality television circuit, something clearly went wrong. Eddie Murphy’s ex allegedly lost $7 million at the hands of her former financial advisor Troy David Stratos. After the allegations from Murphy, Stratos faced 14 counts of fraud, money laundering, and obstructing justice.
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Wesley Snipes
None of us know for sure if Snipes intentionally avoided paying his taxes or if he was truly duped by Eddie Kahn and American Rights Litigators into their crazy “861 argument” scam. We do know that Kahn was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which leads one to believe Snipes got a raw deal.
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Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick
Benie Madoff’s scheming ways knew no chill as he milked Bacon and Sedgwick for what the actor would only tell Howard Stern was “a lot of money.” If it’s any consolation, Madoff is currently serving 150 years for ripping off Bacon, Sedgwick, New York Mets owner David Wilpon, a couple churches, and a handful of companies too.
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Jack Nicholson
It was probably chump change to him, but Jack was one of the many Hollywood stars bilked by fraudulent celebrity art dealer Todd Michael Volpe. In 1998, Volpe was sentenced to 28 months in jail on various charges of fraud.
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Nearly Every Bad Boy Artist
Technically, Puff hasn’t scammed anyone. But it’s hard to argue that he didn’t do the overwhelming majority of his artists dirty with pithy royalty splits and keeping their publishing. No wonder so many former Bad Boy artists are living in struggle.
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Anne Hathaway
We’re assuming Raffaello Follieri didn’t financially scam his A-list girlfriend Anne Hathaway. He saved that for clients such as William Hodge and George Tomichek. After Follieri was cracked for fraud and money laundering in 2008, the jewelry he bought her was seized and auctioned to pay back his fraud victims.
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Hillary Clinton
Add former First Lady and Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton to the list of Claudio Osorio’s victims. After he was expose as a fraud, Bill and Hill quickly returned the $22,000 worth of fraud money he donated to them.
