Photos: Crooked billionaires: Here Are The Wealthy Facing Serious Legal Trouble

The Forbes global billionaires list is generally seen as a celebration of entrepreneurial success. Yet, as one looks a little deeper, deviance always manages to seep out. Currently, six members of the list are either behind bars or have been served with prison sentences, including the likes of Silvio Berlusconi, fashion’s power couple Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, and South Korea’s Chey Tae-Won. Whether the incentive is greed or an attempt to dodge the tax man, even the massively wealthy will occasionally find themselves behind bars, sometimes for a long time.

Wong Kwong Yu
Net worth $1.55B

Wong Kwong Yu is a Chinese electronics retailing businessman who in 2006 was the country’s richest man. Now, he’s in the fourth year of a 14-year prison sentence for insider trading and bribery. Wong’s rise was as meteoric as his fall: he left school and his impoverished family behind at 14 and by his mid-30s had already attained billionaire status after founding Gome, China’s largest electronics retailer. Wong made $230 million on Shenzhen-listed Beijing Centergate Technologies, in which he was the biggest shareholder, trading ahead of major announcements through dummy accounts, a Beijing court said. As he was trying to cultivate relationships inside the government, Wong and his associates reportedly bribed five police and tax officers for $740,000 in exchange for so-called corporate favors. Wong and his wife Du Juan agreed to pay Gome $54 million in compensation for their misconduct last week.

Chey Tae-won
Net Worth $2.5B

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. A Seoul court has sentenced Chey to four years in prison for embezzling millions of dollars of company money for personal investments.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)Chey Tae-Won was serving a four year prison sentence after his supposed belief in the supernatural led him to embezze nearly $50 million from the company he inherited, SK Group. Chey, and his brother, ran the country’s third largest industrial conglomerate, with major interests in the communications and energy sectors. Using the company’s assets as if they were his own, Chey entrusted an asset manager rumored to have been a shaman before, Kim Won-Hong, with running his personal finances. As Kim’s losses mounted in the midst of the global financial crisis in 2008, Chey and his brother funneled cash from two of his companies, doubling down on the supposed fortune-teller who eventually fled to China, and then Taiwan, with a Belizean passport. Chey and his brother are behind bars, while Kim was extradited last September.

Silvio Berlusconi
Net Worth $9B

Teflon politician no more, Berlusconi was expelled from the Senate last year, having been found guilty of both tax fraud and having sex with underage prostitute “Ruby the Heartstealer.” Back to tax fraud: using his personal holding company, Fininvest, Berlusconi bought the rights to major U.S. movies and TV shows through the late 80s and early 90s. Mediaset, the country’s largest TV broadcaster which was founded by Berlusconi and remains under his control, then bought the rights at jacked up prices, creating “black funds” that netted Il Cavaliere €270 million personally at the expense of the taxman and other shareholders. Given his age (77), Berlusconi won't be serving time in the join, instead he'll be doing community service while he awaits the results of three other cases against him for defamation, leaking of confidential wiretaps, and more bribery.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana
Net Worth $1.65B each

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana appear as two of the most high-profile cases in Italy's crack down on tax evasion. The fashion power duo was sentenced to 20 months behind bars last June for allegedly hiding profits from the taxman through an offshore corporation. In what the judge called “sophisticated tax fraud,” the designers sold two of their brands to a holding company in Luxembourg named Gado, allowing them to avoid more than $570 million in taxes. While the designers are appealing, if the conviction is upheld they will be forced to fork over $470 million in fines.

Bernie Ecclestone
Net Worth $4.2B

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone is also in trouble. A British citizen, Ecclestone faces legal challenges in the UK and in Germany, where he is accused of bribery and could face serious jail time. Ecclestone, who directly owns 5.3% of the Formula One Group companies, and 8.5% through his family’s Bambino Trust, was involved in the sale of rights to private equity group CVC Capital Partners in 2006. He is accused of bribing German investment banker Gerhard Gribkowsky with $45 million to guarantee his bank, BayernLB, would sell their stake to CVC while keeping Bernie running the show. Gribkowsky is currently serving an eight-and-a-half year prison term for accepting the bribe, while Ecclestone claims he was blackmailed by the banker who threatened to release fake information tied to his family’s finances. He is set to go to trial in Munich later this year.

Thomas Kwok (along with brother Raymond)
Net worth $12.6B

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. Joint Vice Chairmen and Managing Director Thomas Kwok, center, leaves the Eastern Court in Hong Kong Friday, July 13, 2012 as no plea was taken and the case was adjourned until October 12. Billionaire brothers Thomas and Raymond Kwok and three other people were charged in a graft case alleging that the prominent developers gave bribes in exchange for lucrative information on pending land sales. Also charged Friday by Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption are former Chief Secretary Rafael Hui, a former senior officer of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, and an executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties, which the Kwok brothers co-chair.

Raymond Kwok (along with brother Thomas)
Net worth $12.6B

Thomas and Raymond Kwok have been charged with bribing a former chief secretary and conspiring to conduct misconduct. Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption is going after the billionaire property tycoons for allegedly providing payments and unsecured loans worth more than $4 million to Rafael Hui, Hong Kong’s number two public official, from 2000 to 2009. The trial is scheduled to start in May.

Jim Irsay
Net worth $1.6B

Attorney James Voyles, left and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay leave the Hamilton County Jail in Indianapolis, Monday, March 17, 2014. Irsay was released from jail Monday after being held overnight following a traffic stop in which police said he failed sobriety tests and had multiple prescription drugs inside his vehicle. Irsay was pulled over late Sunday after he was spotted driving slowly near his home in suburban Carmel, stopping in the roadway and failing to use a turn signal.

Joseph Lau
Net worth $8.4B

Another Hong Kong billionaire, Joseph Lau, was just found guilty of a similar offence. Lau was found guilty with the reported payment of HK$20 million, or $2.6 million, to former Macau public works chief Ao Man-long in a money-for-land deal, as Forbes' Russell Flannery reported. Lau was forced to step down as chairman and CEO of Chinese Real Estate Holdings of Hong Kong after being sentenced to prison for five years and three months. Replaced by his son Ming-wai as head of his company, Lau will probably appeal. Regardless, he probably won't be serving any time, as Hong Kong doesn't have an extradition treaty with Macau.

Source: Forbes.