Making A List, Checking It Twice

The '30 Under 30 Curse' is an enduring embarrassment for business news publications

“You mustn't touch idols: The gilding stays on your hands.” – Gustave Flaubert

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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.

“My grade school teachers called me a disruptor and a Forbes article said this was a good thing.” (Illustration: ChatGPT.)

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.

Last week, prosecutors announced a sweeping, six-count indictment against Christine Hunsicker alleging a $300 million fraud at the fashion technology companies she founded, CaaStle and P180. For now, she’s out on $1 million bail and has pleaded not guilty.

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.”

Somehow, this so-called “disruptor” never made the list of “Most Likely To Forge An Audit Report,” as recently alleged.

Then there’s Charlie Javice who was convicted in March for duping JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million. Javice, who founded a college planning startup called Frank, faces decades in prison when she is slated to be sentenced in August.

But oh the acclaim she racked up on her way to the pokey.

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.

JPMorgan grossly overpaid Javice for her website and customer base. Too bad there was never a list for “Most Likely To Sell A Bogus Email List To An Unwary Wall Street Bank.”

Forbes claims a 99.9% success rate in its 30 Under 30 lists, which are published for several industry segments and include hundreds of people each year. Too often, the list, and others just like it, seem to set up honorees for failure.

Here’s the Blunder List of highly lauded business personalities who went on to become spectacular flops.

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It’s not easy keeping track of these wonders. See anyone missing?

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• Do Kwon, Terraform Labs. Before he was indicted in January 2025 for fraudulently inflating the value of his company’s cryptocurrencies in an alleged $40 billion fraud, 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. He has pleaded not guilty.

• 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 Distributor. 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, Elea Capital, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare. 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?

• 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 this bloviating banker “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.

(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.)