8 Scandals That Make Lance Armstrong's Doping Look Like No Big Deal

Lance Armstrong, he of illegal performance-enchancing drug confessions, has been called a lot of things recently, among them a "master manipulator" and a "liar." But it's not like he's the first to fake his way to the top, nor the man who made the most doing it.

Of course, there's no one reason to cheat. Some people simply enjoy the thrill of cheating itself, which probably explains why Americans are so willing to cheat, and so unwilling to consider that they'll get caught. I mean, check out these guys:

• Charles Van Doren

  Van Doren, an author and Colombia professor at the time, became known as one of the biggest cheats in TV history when it was discovered he was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/opinion/21iht-edbeam.1.14660467.html">being supplied answers on the game show</a> "Twenty-One." The episode later inspired the movie <em>Quiz Show</em>.

• MIT Blackjack Team

  The MIT blackjack team ultimately became a Hollywood sensation when a book and movie came out based on the team's Vegas card-counting scheme, which allowed them to take casinos for an <a href="http://listverse.com/2010/01/24/10-gamblers-who-beat-the-casino/">estimated $5 million at the blackjack table</a>.

• Dennis Kozlowski And Mike Swartz

  Tyco executives <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/mark-swartz-tyco_n_1502909.html">Kozlowski and Swartz were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for grand larceny</a> when they looted their employer of around $600 million (to buy vital stuff like a $6,000 shower curtain, by the way).

• Barry Minkow

  Minkow was hailed as an all-American business prodigy for the success of his<a href="http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/05/barry-minkow-con-man/"> carpet cleaning company ZZZZ Best</a>, founded at just age 16. That is, until it was revealed he'd been cheating investors, using the company as a $100 million Ponzi Scheme, Fortune reports.

• Allen Stanford

  The formerly private jet-owning, yacht-sailing Stanford earned himself a 110-year prison sentence after orchestrating a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/14/allen-stanford-sentenced-prison-jail-ponzi-scheme-110-years_n_1597286.html">Ponzi Scheme worth an estimated $7 billion</a>.

• Ken Lay And Jeffrey Skilling

  Lay and Skilling became the executives behind one of the biggest accounting fraud cases in U.S. history when their company Enron was indicted on corruption charges. Lay passed away in 2006, but <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/supreme-court-jeffrey-skilling_n_1428432.html">Skilling lost an appeal to overturn his criminal conviction</a> last year.

• Walter Anderson

  Anderson, a telecommunications entrepreneur, ended up owing the federal government around <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1891335_1891333_1891331,00.html">$200 million after setting up the largest tax evasion scheme to date</a>, via a string of offshore accounts, TIME reports. He was finally caught in 2005.

• Bernie Madoff

  Madoff may go down in history as one of the biggest cheats of all time, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/bernie-madoff-payout-ponzi-scheme-victims_n_1899985.html">running an estimated $65 billion Ponzi Scheme</a> considered the largest in U.S. history. Madoff is now serving a 150-year prison sentence.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/cheaters-lance-armstrong_n_2505899.html

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