Celebrities are victims too

Hollywood stars Kevin Bacon, Ben Stiller, Anne Hathaway all fall victim

Here at The Scam Hound we like to add a little light scam entertainment news to interrupt our heavier financial articles. This one for all the gossip pals, busybodies and scandal mongers amongst you, I am invested!

The rich and famous lose millions to scammers just like anyone else, proving that nobody is immune to financial fraud, the only difference is they try to keep it quiet.

About Fraud reports Anne Hathaway was mesmerised by romance fraudster Raffaello Follieri, who swindled the Oscar winning star out of 2.4 million dollars. He posed as a wealthy Italian businessman and persuaded Hathaway he had connections for housing deals in the Vatican.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick fell victim to Bernie Madoff’s multi billion dollar Ponzi scheme, losing an estimated 100 million of their life savings. The couple fell for exclusivity, high guaranteed returns and trust within the elite social circles. They did manage to recover some of the funds and Bernie received 150 year prison sentence for creating one of the largest, most devastating frauds in history.

The Guardian reported that Rihanna lost 23% of her total revenues estimated at 9 million in just one year. Her blind trust in professionals, youthful age and success meant a lack of daily monitoring. This was the result of her own financial advisor, who had been draining her funds, "Because of Berdon's incompetence, they allege, Rihanna's 2009 world tour lost money." 

Dana Giacchetto financial manager to the stars defrauded many a celebrity in a wider scheme which took 10 million from his clients who included Ben Stiller, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz and singer Alanis Morrisette, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Courtney Cox Arquette. He pleaded guilty to fraud charges and received a prison sentence of 57 months.

Finally the footballers are not immune. Cristiano Ronaldo was fond of a travel agent named Maria Silva, who used his virtual credit card, which he had entrusted to her to loot over £245,000. Maria did not only use Ronaldo's card, she also targeted other footballers and sports agents.

Original story and background information courtesy of About Fraud, The Guardian & abc news.