Robert Vesco – 1935–2007

Vesco worked his way up from Detroit auto worker to owning controlling interests in companies with more than $100 million in sales by the late 1960s. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Vesco of looting investments in one of his companies, thereby defrauding thousands of investors, and in 1973 Vesco was indicted for illegal contributions to the Nixon reelection campaign. Vesco fled prosecution, eventually ending up in Cuba, where Fidel Castro jailed him and refused extradition.