889 articles
Abdul Karim Telgi
Abdul Karim Telgi (1961-2017), also Kareem Lala, Indian counterfeiter from Khanapur, Karnataka, mastermind of the fake stamp paper scam; convicted 2007 to 30 years and Rs 202 crore fine, died owing Rs 190 crore in tax.
Accounting scandals
Accounting scandals: corporate financial misreporting such as Enron ($63.4B bankruptcy, 2001) and WorldCom ($9B false entries), driving the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, PCAOB creation, and auditor-independence reforms.
Acid attack
Acid attack (vitriolage): violent assault throwing acid or corrosives to injure or disfigure. Concentrated in South Asia; UK has highest per capita recorded attacks; laws include UK Offensive Weapons Act 2019 and India BNS 2023 section 124.
Advance-fee scam
Advance-fee scam, also called advance-fee fraud or the 419 or Nigerian prince scam, is fraud demanding upfront payment for a promised loan, prize, or investment that never materializes; named for section 419 of Nigeria's Criminal Code.
Affray
Affray is a public order offence of using or threatening unlawful violence that would make a person of reasonable firmness fear for their safety; statutory in England and Wales (3 years), NSW (10 years), common law in Hong Kong (7 years).
Age of consent
Age of consent: minimum legal age for agreeing to sexual activity, also called statutory rape law. Historically puberty-based, raised in England from 13 to 16 in 1885; today mostly 16–18, with close-in-age exceptions worldwide.
Ajmer rape case
The 1992 Ajmer rape case, or Ajmer sex scandal, was gang rape and blackmail of over 100 schoolgirls aged 11-20 in Ajmer, Rajasthan, by 18 influential accused; final six convicted in 2024.
Albanian mafia
Albanian mafia: contested label for Albanian-speaking criminal networks from Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro active in cocaine, heroin and cannabis trafficking across Europe and Latin America, organized in fis clans.
Alexis Flores
Alexis Flores, Honduran fugitive also known as Mario Flores and Alex Contreras, was FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #487, wanted for the 2000 kidnapping and murder of five-year-old Iriana DeJesus in Philadelphia; arrested in Honduras in February 2026 and extradited in 2026.
Alexis Haines
Alexis Haines, born Alexis Neiers, is an American recovery advocate and memoirist who starred in E!'s Pretty Wild and was convicted of first degree burglary as a Bling Ring member, serving one month for the Orlando Bloom burglary.
Alice Crimmins
Alice Crimmins (born 1941) is an American woman from Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, tried twice (1968, 1971) for the 1965 deaths of her children Eddie Jr. and Missy; only a manslaughter conviction survived appeal, and she was paroled in 1977.
Almighty Black P. Stone Nation
Almighty Black P. Stone Nation (BPSN), also Blackstone Rangers and El Rukns: Chicago street gang founded circa 1959-1960 by Jeff Fort and Eugene Hairston in Woodlawn, uniting 21 gangs, later convicted of a Libya-linked terrorism plot.
Almighty Vice Lord Nation
Almighty Vice Lord Nation (AVLN), a People Nation alliance of African American street gangs founded as the Conservative Vice Lords in Chicago around 1958; major factions include Conservative, Traveling, Mafia Insane, and Four Corner Hustlers, active in drug trafficking and subject to federal RICO prosecutions.
AlphaBay
AlphaBay was a darknet marketplace on Tor, online December 2014 to July 2017, selling drugs, weapons, malware, and stolen data for Bitcoin, Monero, and Ethereum. Founded by Alexandre Cazes (Alpha02), it was seized in Operation Bayonet as the largest darknet market to that date, with over $1 billion in transactions.
American Mafia
The American Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra, is Italian-American organized crime operating in the United States since the 1920s through families such as New York's Five Families.
Amy Fisher
Amy Fisher (born 1974), the "Long Island Lolita," shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in Massapequa, New York on May 19, 1992 during an affair with Joey Buttafuoco; she served nearly seven years in prison.
Andre Rand
Andre Rand, born Frank Rostum Rushan in 1944, is a convicted Staten Island kidnapper serving 25-years-to-life terms for the 1987 Jennifer Schweiger and 1981 Holly Ann Hughes kidnappings, suspected in other child disappearances.
Andrew Cunanan
Andrew Phillip Cunanan was an American spree killer who committed five murders during a cross-country rampage in 1997, ending the spree by killing the fashion designer Gianni Versace.
Andrew Luster
Andrew Stuart Luster, Max Factor great-grandson, convicted in 2003 of GHB-drugging and raping three women, fled trial, was captured in Mexico by Duane Chapman, resentenced to 50 years, and paroled in 2026.
Ankit Fadia
Ankit Fadia (born 1985, Ahmedabad) is an Indian author and self-proclaimed ethical hacker famous from his 2001 book An Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking; his hacking claims are widely disputed and his books documented as heavily plagiarized.
Anna Sorokin (Анна Сорокина)
Anna Sorokin (Анна Сорокина), alias Anna Delvey, Russian-born German con artist who posed as a wealthy heiress in New York 2013–2017, defrauding banks and hotels of over $275,000; convicted 2019, sentenced 4–12 years, subject of Netflix's Inventing Anna.
Anonymous (hacker group)
Anonymous is a decentralized hacktivist collective originating on 4chan in 2003, known for Project Chanology, Operation Payback, Arab Spring operations, the Guy Fawkes mask, and its legacy in later hacktivist groups.
Anthony Curcio
Anthony Jay Curcio (born 1980), American armored car robber of Monroe, Washington, the 'D.B. Tuber' of the 2008 Brink's heist, later a motivational speaker convicted in 2026 of forging PSA trading card grades as 'Brendan Wooley'.
Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal
The Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal was a federal investigation of Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who wiretapped celebrities' opponents for clients and was convicted in 2008.
Antwerp diamond heist
The Antwerp diamond heist (February 2003): the School of Turin, led by Leonardo Notarbartolo, opened the Antwerp Diamond Center vault and stole over $100 million in diamonds, the largest diamond heist on record; almost none of the loot was recovered.
Apalachin meeting
The Apalachin meeting, also called the Apalachin raid or summit, was a November 14, 1957 gathering of American Mafia bosses at Joseph Barbara Sr.'s estate in Apalachin, New York, broken up by New York State Police under Sgt. Edgar Croswell, first public proof of a national crime syndicate.
Aqua Tofana
Aqua Tofana, also sold as Manna of St Nicholas, was an arsenic-based poison developed in Sicily around 1630 and sold in Rome and Naples, becoming notorious in a 1659 trial.
Ariel Castro kidnappings
Ariel Castro kidnappings: 2002-2004 abductions of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus in Cleveland; decade-long captivity at 2207 Seymour Avenue; Castro's 937-count guilty plea, life plus 1,000 years, and 2013 prison suicide.
Armenian Power
Armenian Power (AP, AP-13) is an Armenian American street gang and organized crime group founded in East Hollywood, Los Angeles in the 1980s, allied with the Mexican Mafia, centered on fraud, hit by the 2011 Operation Power Outage takedown.
Armin Meiwes
Armin Meiwes, the "Cannibal of Rotenburg" (Kannibale von Rotenburg), killed and ate Bernd Brandes in 2001 after an internet ad; convicted of manslaughter in 2004, then murder with life imprisonment in 2006.