“You mustn't touch idols: The gilding stays on your hands.” – Gustave Flaubert
Venerating business people is the second-worst crime that the financial media regularly commits.
Featured entrepreneurs and executives are not saints. They’re not always good at business, either. They just hired a good PR firm. So why worship them with bogus listicles like, “30 Under 30,” “40 Under 40” or “Top Entrepreneurs?”
It’s almost as bad as the worst crime business journalists regularly commit: hyping stocks, like they know the future, often leading exuberant readers to losses. Shamelessly promoting business personalities often leads to the same financial disasters.
It’s commonly called the “30 Under 30 Curse.” It’s so bad that in 2023 Forbes had to create a “Hall of Shame” for the bad calls on its annual lists.
Business Blunders keeps score so that everyday people can stay aware of what they are up against when navigating the financial world. And the scorecard keeps adding players.
Here’s the Blunder List of people who were lionized in a list and then went on to spectactular frauds or failures:
Christine Hunsicker – Caastle
Christine Hunsicker, founder of fashion technology startup Caastyle, recieved a five-year prison sentence after pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $283 million. Inc. magazine once put Hunsicker on its lists of “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs” and “Top 100 Female Founders.” In 2016, Crain’s New York put her on its annual “40 Under 40” list. And in 2017, she made the National Retail Federation’s “List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.” She made so many lists. Unfortunately, one of them was the federal prison roster.
Charlie Javice – Frank
Charlie Javice was sentenced to more than seven years after duping JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million when she sold her student aid website to the firm. In 2011, Fast Company put her on its list of “Most Creative People,” which in an unfortunate way proved true. In 2019, she made the Crain’s New York Business list of “40 Under 40.” Also in 2019, she made Forbes “30 Under 30’ list. Finally, in 2023, Forbes reconsidered and put Javice in its Hall of Shame. Her company helped students fill out financial aid forms. Turns out the hardest the form to fill out is an application for a presidential pardon.
Do Kwon – Terraform Labs
Do Kwon, is serving a 15 year prison sentence for a $40 billion cryoto fraud. Before he was indicted in January 2025 for fraudulently inflating the value of his company’s cryptocurrencies, Kwon made Forbes’ 2019 30 Under 30 list for finance. At the top of his game, Kwon mocked his social media critics as “idiots” and haughtily told one of them:“I don’t debate the poor on Twitter.” Apparently, being a crypto troll is not disqualifying at Forbes.
Patrick Britton-Harr — AeroVanti
The Business Observer put Britton-Harr on its 2022 “40 Under 40” list after he launched AeroVanti, a private-aviation membership company. Britton-Harr told the publication that AeroVanti had generated $200 million in revenue during its first year and called himself a “serial entrepreneur.” Federal prosecutors later said he took about $15 million that customers had put up toward aircraft purchases and diverted the money for personal expenses, including boats and jewelry. A federal jury convicted him of six counts of wire fraud in June 2026. AeroVanti promised customers private jets. Britton-Harr’s career came in for a hard landing.
Gökçe Güven — Kalder
Forbes put Güven on its 2025 “30 Under 30” list for Kalder, a startup that promised to help brands turn customer-rewards programs into revenue. Federal prosecutors said Güven raised about $7 million from investors with false claims about Kalder’s revenues and customers, even maintaining two sets of books, one containing inflated numbers for investors. Güven pleaded guilty to securities fraud in May 2026 and agreed to forfeit nearly $7 million. Prosecutors said she also used false information to obtain a visa reserved for people with “extraordinary ability.” Apparently, they weren’t specific enough about what kind.
Meade Lewis — mIQroTech
Forbes put Lewis on its 2022 “30 Under 30” list for founding mIQroTech, an oil-and-gas technology startup developing sensors to detect pipeline leaks. Lewis subsequently admitted that pitch decks used to raise nearly $8 million falsely claimed the company had millions in revenue when it actually had less than $100,000. Some of the money went toward personal expenses, including a house. Lewis pleaded guilty to wire fraud in September 2026 and agreed to forfeit at least $7.1 million. He once posted that mIQroTech was on its way to becoming the “next tech unicorn.” Turns out it was another mythical creature.
Nate Paul – World ClassCapital
Forbes put Paul on its 30 under 30 list in 2016 for founding a $1 billion real estate empire spanning 17 states. In April 2025, the Austin, Texas developer was sentenced to four months of home confinement after facing a dozen bank fraud-related charges. He got off easy, possibly because of his connections to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. During sentencing, even the judge acknowledged the possibility of a presidential pardon. But at least he’s now a convicted felon and a dis-honoree in the Forbes Hall of Shame.
Joanna Smith-Griffin, AllHere Education
Smith-Griffin spun her company out of Harvard with the noble aim of using artificial intelligence to keep kids engaged in schools. She was charged in November 2024 for lying about her company’s revenues, customer base and cash on hand while she raised about $10 million from investors. When Smith-Griffin made the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in 2021, she offered at least one telling comment: “My goal over the next 12 months is a land grab.”
Sam Bankman-Fried – FTX
How could Forbes not notice the sudden success of this fuzzy-headed cryptocurrency exchange founder? Bankman-Fried was richer than Scrooge McDuck when he made 30 Under 30 in 2021. But that was before he was exposed for running one of the biggest scams in the brief history of cryptocurrency. He was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison.
Caroline Ellison – Alameda Research
Why not include Sam Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend, too? Forbes placed Ellison on its “30 Under 30” list in 2022. Before the year was through, she copped a plea deal for her role as CEO of the trading firm intertwined with FTX. In September 2024, she was sentenced to only two years in prison after assisting with prosecutors in Bankman-Fried’s conviction. In December 2024, she had three months dropped from her prison sentence for “good conduct time.” She’ll be out in time to make the 40 Under 40.
Matilda Djerf – Djerf Avenue
Forbes called this Swedish fashion entrepreneur the “it girl” as it placed her on its 2023 30 Under 30 list. They could have added an “sh” to “it girl.” In December 2024, her employees publicly accused her of deploying “psychological terror” in the workplace, even to the point of making one worker scrub her toilet. Unlike most other disgraced Forbes honorees, she apologized, and there’s no crime in that.
James O’Keefe – Project Veritas
. Forbes put the conservative media group’s founder on its 2012 30 Under 30 list for “his mission to expose liberal bias in the media.” Forbes needs to be on a mission to expose its own bias in making these ridiculous lists. In February 2023, O’Keefe’s own board removed him, saying it uncovered “financial malfeasance,” with donor funds going towards his “personal luxuries.” No crime charged here, but Forbes had little choice but to move O’Keefe to its Hall of Shame.
Phadria Prendergast – Women of the City Magazine
Forbes decided to investigate Prendergast only after honoring her on its 2023 30 Under 30 list. Forbes then detailed allegations of a pay-to-play scheme at Prendergast’s magazine. Several customers claimed that she stole around $195,000 from them. She was also linked to Nigerian-British pastor Tobi Adegboyega, whose SPAC Nation church has been labelled a cult. She has denied the allegations, and no charges have been filed, but she is now listed in Forbes’ Hall of Shame.
Elizabeth Holmes – Theranos
Holmes received more than 11 years in prison in November 2022 for duping high-profile investors out of billions with her fake blood tests. Before that, she may have racked up more accolades than any other fraudster in history. To name a few: In 2014, Forbes ranked her No. 73 in its list of “the world’s most powerful women.” Time Magazine listed her among its 100 most influential people. She became the youngest recipient of the 2015 Horatio Alger Award honoring distinguished Americans. And President Barack Obama named her Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. So many awards. So few prison-cell walls to hang them on.
Cody Wilson – Defense Distributed
Forbes described Wilson as a “Texan crypto-anarchist … behind the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun,” when it placed him on its 2014 30 Under 30 list. “He sees the gun as a symbolic step toward a private law society, where power rests with people rather than intrusive government.” And then in 2019 Wilson was sentenced to seven years of probation for sex with an underaged girl who he met online. That damn intrusive government will get you whether you’re armed or not. He’s in the Forbes Hall of Shame. Forbes should put itself in the Hall of Shame, too, after this one.
Steph Korey – Away
The co-founder of this luggage brand made Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30 list only to be exposed months later as a toxic boss in a 2019 article by The Verge. There’s nothing illegal about being a mean boss, but Forbes moved Korey to its Hall of Shame for her alleged bullying management style. Now she’s got to carry around that baggage.
Martin Shkreli – Turing Pharmaceuticals
Shkreli made the 2012 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Finance. Then he became widely known as the much-hated “pharma bro” after acquiring a license for the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim and raised its price from $13.50 to $750.00 per pill. Too bad this parasite didn’t use the drug on himself. He also committed securities fraud and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018.
Lucas Duplan – Clinkle
Forbes was at least a little prescient when Duplan made its 2014 30 Under 30 list for his digital wallet startup: “Duplan is running one of the most hyped and controversial startups in the nation.” Like that’s a credential? Unfortunately, the tech world moves quickly and Clinkle shut down in 2016. Unlike other fantastic flops in the Forbes Hall of Shame, Duplan was only accused of failure and mismanagement, which is hardly a crime in today’s business world. He did, however, embarrass some high-flying Silicon Valley investors – including Peter Thiel and the venture capital firm of Andreesen Horowitz – after raising $30 million and never delivering a product.
Fredrick D. Scott – ACI Capital Group
In 2010, Ebony magazine put Scott on its ‘Top 30 Under 30” list as “the youngest African American hedge fund founder in history.” In 2014, he received 63 months in prison for stealing money from his clients and lying to regulators. “Fredrick Douglas Scott claimed to be a part of history,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. “Rather than help his clients invest their hard earned money, Scott stole their money for his own personal use to buy expensive dinners, clothes, and other goods and services.” How else was he supposed to maintain his image?
Michael Stewart — Pacific Property Assets
Stewart had plenty of accolades to show prospective investors in his Southern California real estate company. Pacific Property Assets made Inc. magazine’s list of fastest-growing private companies three times, Stewart was a regional finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Orange County Business Journal named PPA one of the county’s fastest-growing businesses. Then the real estate market collapsed and prosecutors said Stewart and his partner turned the company into a Ponzi scheme. PPA filed for bankruptcy owing 647 investors more than $91 million, with estimated investor losses eventually reaching $169 million. Stewart was convicted of 11 counts of mail fraud and sentenced in 2016 to 14 years in prison. Turns out the fastest-growing thing at Pacific Property Assets was the hole in its balance sheet.
Stein Bagger — IT Factory
Ernst & Young named Bagger “Danish Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2008, while Computerworld twice named his IT Factory Denmark’s best IT company. Unfortunately, much of Bagger’s spectacular success existed largely on paper. Authorities uncovered a massive scheme involving fictitious transactions, forged documents and nonexistent computer equipment used to obtain financing. Bagger fled Denmark, eventually surrendered to police in Los Angeles and was sentenced in 2009 to seven years in prison for fraud and forgery. Even his résumé was innovative: Bagger claimed an MBA and Ph.D. from “San Francisco Technical University,” which didn’t exist. Apparently neither did much of IT Factory.
R. Allen Stanford – Stanford Financial Group
Before receiving a 110-year prison sentence in 2012 for running one of the world’s biggest Ponzi schemes, London-based World Finance magazine named Stanford, its “2008 Man of the Year.” Or so it appeared with $7 billion in stolen loot in his pockets. Stanford’s scheme was so massive, he might have ranked No. 1 on the Blunder List of biggest Ponzi schemes. Too bad Bernie Madoff beat him to the title. Now there’s a guy who managed to stay off these lists.
Andrew Fastow – Enron.
CFO Magazine named Fastow “CFO of the Year” in 1999, recognizing his innovative, yet ultimately fraudulent, use of off-balance-sheet vehicles. Fastow went on to serve five years in prison. “When Andrew S. Fastow, the 37-year-old CFO of Enron Corp., boasts that “our story is one of a kind,” he’s not kidding,” the magazine said. Yeah, and it wasn’t funny.
Full discloser: I hope this serves as penance for some of the suck-up stories I’ve I had to write and edit over the years. Business journalists need to be watchdogs, not lapdogs.)
So true! Go deep on the Hunsicker, there is a lot more there and she continues to scam while doing her plea deal.
100% agree with you, Al. When I went from crime reporting to business reporting, I thought (and my cop friends thought) I was going to be covering business/financial "white-collar" crime in a pinstripped suit. You may recall, they used to refer to hyping (especially local) businesses and business people as 'boosterism.' And that's what the advertisers/newspapers wanted in terms of 'business coverage.' It carried over into Crane's, and Forbes, and Inc., etc. All designed to promote the philosophy that 'the Business of America is Business.' It was especially prevelant in Texas in the 1980s, at the height of the Savings & Loan and Banking crisis.