Julian Crowley
The most successful criminal ever known, it has been said that at one point Pablo Escobar was so rich he spent $1,000 a week on rubber bands in order to wrap his bundles of cash. Escobar’s business was drugs — at one time his cartel controlled 80% of the world’s cocaine trade. Laundering money was central to Escobar’s empire, and his recipe for success was relatively simple: “[Y]ou bribe someone here, you bribe someone there, and you pay a friendly banker to help you bring the money back.” In 1989, Escobar’s personal fortune was estimated at $9 billion, making him the seventh richest man in the world. His criminal career — and life — ended in 1993 following a gun fight with Colombian authorities.
