Con Artist Hall of Infamy: A Hall of Shame

Halls of fame celebrate positive, uplifting human achievements. But what about the dark side of human nature? They’re best recounted in halls of shame or halls of infamy.
The website Con Artist Hall of Infamy is one such hall. It profiles scam artists, swindlers, hustlers, grifters and frauds such as Charles Ponzi, Jim Bakker and Bernard Madoff.
The site has inducted 35 into its hall of infamy so far. And you can vote on the 2010 inductees on the website’s blog.
The Con Artist Hall of Infamy is the brainchild of San Francisco financier Warren Hellman, founder and chairman of the Hellman & Friedman private equity firm, and Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist who was among the first investors in Intel and Apple.
The two men decided in the summer of 2008 to create a “Who’s Who” of the most audacious financial con artists. They hope the Con Artist Hall of Infamy is both an entertaining read and a lesson for business students on the importance of ethics.
The website, which went public in July 2009, is researched and written by Becca MacLaren.