American Greed: Pharma Bro And 6 More Reprehensible Recent Criminals — Plus, A Classic Gruesome Twosome

Gordon Gekko was wrong. Greed is not good.

Especially when you're talking about the subjects of CNBC's American Greed — white-collar criminals who have murdered folks, caused immeasurable financial pain and suffering, and ripped off the elderly and most vulnerable.

Currently wrapping up a Season 14 filled with fraudsters (and narrator Stacy Keach's signature scorn), American Greed has never had a shortage of despicable and avaricious opportunists, thieves and confidence people to profile. To that end, the CNBC cult favorite — which can also be streamed on Peacock — this week kicked off an addendum of sorts called American Greed Bonus Edition (Mondays, 10/9c), featuring juicy updates on some of the show's most wretched wrongdoers. This includes new details on Dalia Dippolito, the former Florida escort-turned-housewife who was profiled in Season 12 and convicted for attempting to outsource the murder of her husband, which was secretly videoed.

Fans can also expect updates on David H. Brooks, the defamed military supplier from Season 1 whose stock fraud and pilfering allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle and throw a $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter. (Although Brooks is deceased, his family and estate are still dealing with the financial ramifications of his crimes.)

Inspired by Dippolito and Brooks, we've compiled our own list of dastardly, alive-and-kicking ne'er-do-wells featured mostly in recent seasons. That ignominious list includes Dippolito, Martin Shkreli aka Pharma Bro (and his Resting Smirk Face), and Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

The Black Widow grandmas — Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt — are the only "throwbacks" on the list. But our condemnation matters little because, not to be morbid, but the last of their years will take place in prison.

Scroll our list of American Greed's most dreadfully current criminals below, then drop a comment with the names of any rotten eggs we might have forgotten!

Martin Shkreli aka Pharma Bro jacked up the price for a lifesaving drug 5,000 percent. While that is deplorable it's not illegal, so Shkreli didn't get convicted for that. Instead, the feds busted him for defrauding investors out of a whopping $7.4 million. He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence. Shkreli reportedly used some of his ill-gotten funds to purchase an exclusive $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album (Uh, OK), and he grabbed additional headlines this past December for dating a journalist who destroyed her life and career to be with him.

This brash Phoenix businessman bought and sold so many foreclosed houses during the 2008 recession, he landed a spot on the Discovery Channel reality series Property Wars a few years later. But when Menaged couldn't turn profits the way he used to, he turned to fraud in 2014 and even stole the identities and Social Security numbers of deceased people. Worse still, he lied to and ripped off his primary lender and friend Denny Chittick, who took his own life when the financial burden became too much. Menaged was convicted for aggravated identity theft, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and is serving a 17-year prison sentence. He also has to pay back $33 million in restitution.

Kapoor is one of the few high-ranking pharmaceutical executives to be convicted for having direct ties to America's opioid epidemic and overdose deaths. A federal judge convicted the billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics, which manufactures a powerful oral fentanyl spray called Subsys, for fraud and bribing doctors to prescribe the medication and lie to insurance providers when patients didn't need the drug. (The painkiller, intended for AIDS and cancer patients, has a $19,000 monthly price tag.) Kapoor and his execs did a number of unscrupulous things (including hiring strippers) to convince doctors to take bribes.  Kapoor received a five-year prison sentence.

In what seemed like life imitating a Lifetime movie, Dippolito attempted to hire a hitman to kill her newlywed husband, to acquire his savings and sole ownership of their townhouse. The case gained national attention because the hitman she talked to was in actuality an undercover cop who videoed the encounter. Said recording went viral on the Internet and aired on both COPS and 20/20. The case got so much press that it helped Dippolito's defense attorneys get her initial 2011 conviction and 20-year sentencing thrown out, but at a new trial, a jury found her guilty and the judge sentenced her to 16 years.

Avenatti rose to prominence as Stormy Daniels' larger-than-life attorney, when the former adult film star sued former President Donald Trump. (He even considered running for president himself!) But all of that was cut short when a New York court found Avenatti guilty in 2020 for attempting to extort Nike. Avenatti has also been accused of stealing from Daniels $300,000 in book proceeds, to support his extravagant lifestyle. He is also accused of pilfering $4 million from a suicidal inmate who had won a lawsuit against Los Angeles County, and owes millions of dollars in unpaid taxes, bills (from when he co-purchased Tully's Coffee) and fees.

Fulford's megawatt smile and pretty blond hair allowed her to fool and flummox a number of rising star athletes (as well as a few established ones). These highly respected men blindly trusted her because she mothered them with one hand and stole their money with the other. And as she embezzled millions, she hoped that the men would be too embarrassed to turn her in to the cops.  Once the law caught up to Fulford, whose financial victims included former NFL running back Ricky Williams (above) and retired NBA great Dennis Rodman, she was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay back her victims.

Of all of the American Greed offenders to cross our screens, "The Situation" is arguably the least malignant. Yes, he did lie and cheat when it came to filing taxes on the $9 million he earned. But the eight-month prison sentence a federal judge handed him covered his fraudulent offense, as did his 500 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine. So, maybe he doesn't deserve a punch as much as a backhanded slap and a stern, "Snap out of it!"

At a glance, Golay and Rutterschmidt look like harmless grandmothers with endless supplies of hard candy. But these innocent visages belie their hard, killer instincts, as police detectives eventually discovered. Golay and Rutterschmidt befriended and housed two indigent men, took insurance policies out on their lives, and murdered them for the $2.8 million payouts. In both instances, the men appeared to be victims of "hit-and-run accidents," but Golay and Rutterschmidt were the ones driving the cars. Dubbed "The Black Widows," Golay and Rutterschmidt were sentenced to life in prison without parole.