Around the 1990s, Yasuo Hamanaka of Sumitomo Corporation came to control 5% of the world's copper. He used various unscrupulous means, such as fake trades, forged documents, and hoarding, to manipulate global copper prices. Then, a twist came with the resurgence of copper mining in China. Sumitomo lost USD 2.6 billion when the scam was uncovered in 1996.

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Salomon Brothers was one of the largest investment banks in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the first bank to sell mortgage-backed securities. The head of the government bond trading desk at Salomon had figured out a way to scam the Fed's treasury auctions. When the scam surfaced, the Fed and the SEC were both determined to bring down Salomon, but Warren Buffett stepped in to help find the culprit and keep the bank running.

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Bernie Madoff ran an investment management firm that was not open to all - it was an invite-only club. That is what made it aspirational. Many investors saw it as a sign of status if they got to invest with Madoff. But no one knew that Madoff was not investing their money; he was just running a Ponzi scheme that lost investors a massive $65 billion.

How did he pull it off?

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