American Greed

The business-reality program focuses on the stories behind high-profile corporate and white-collar crimes, betrayals, and scams in American history, including the financial scandals involving WorldCom,[5] HealthSouth,[6] Tyco International,[7] and CyberNET.[8] Besides these high-profile cases, stories have featured lower-profile financial crimes that have affected individual investors and smaller companies, including various Ponzi schemes, real estate and other investment frauds, bank robbery, identity theft, medical fraud, embezzlement, insurance fraud, murder-for-hire, art theft, credit card fraud, money laundering, and crimes committed by elected officials.[1]

In addition, there have been three American Greed special presentations: American Greed Special: Bernie Madoff Behind Bars;[9] American Greed: Special Presentation: 9/11 Fraud – "A Contractor Capitalizes on Disaster";[10] and Mob Money: An American Greed Special Presentation.[11]

American Greed has had at least three companion programs, all of which have also been narrated by Stacy Keach Jr.

In August 2012, CNBC aired the series American Greed: The Fugitives, which focused on active cases of alleged white-collar crime. The show documented stories of suspects who were still at large and had continued to evade authorities.[12] It lasted 2 seasons, covering 13 cases of financial crimes.[13] After the November 14, 2013, airing of American Greed: The Fugitives #12, viewer tips led to the successful November 26, 2013, arrest of FBI Most Wanted fugitive David Kaup, who had been a fugitive since December 17, 2012, when he failed to appear for sentencing in Los Angeles.[14][15]

In early 2019, CNBC aired another companion series, American Greed: Deadly Rich, which focused on high-profile murder cases involving the wealthy.

On July 15, 2020, it was announced that another companion series titled American Greed: Biggest Cons would premiere on July 20, 2020.[16] When American Greed: Biggest Cons did so premiere, it updated some of the stories the main program had previously featured, such as its profiles of Madoff and Martin Shkreli and its study of William "Rick" Singer's college-admission scheme.

Critics argue American Greed has overstated the role of government investigators in uncovering frauds, noting that many frauds were discovered only after a number of people had already been victimized; e.g., the largest fraud, Bernie Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme, ended only after he confessed. In civil fraud claims, courts require that the fraud be pleaded with specificity and the proponent provide documentation corroborating the claim. In the Madoff case, an early administrative complaint was dismissed for lack of evidence, with the claim of a Ponzi scheme deemed speculative and unsubstantiated using essentially the same standard federal courts employ in evaluating civil fraud claims.

Other sources

• Matulich, Serge; Currie, David (June 2008). "Richard Scrushy: The Rise and fall of the King of Health Care". Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership (Illustrated ed.). CRC Press. pp. 315–351. ISBN 978-1-4200-7285-3. OCLC 214285931. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
• Jennings, Marianne (August 2006). "Innovation Like No Other". The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse (annotated ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 214–216. ISBN 0-312-35430-4. OCLC 63297926.
• Markham, Jerry (December 2005). "Full Disclosure Fails". A Financial History of Modern U.S. Corporate Scandals: From Enron to Reform (illustrated ed.). Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 360–364. ISBN 0-7656-1583-5. OCLC 58536658.

1. Fed.R. Civ. Pro 9.

2. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009).

• Official website
• American Greed at IMDb