Fraud

The Bre-X Gold Fraud: The Biggest Mining Scam in History

St. Paul, Alberta. A town of five thousand people in the Canadian prairies. The town’s only claim to fame is a UFO landing platform, built in 1967 for Canada’s centennial. A concrete pad with a sign inviting extraterrestrial visitors to land. Nothing ever landed. But in the mid-1990s, something stranger than aliens happened to this town. Chapter 18 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Bre-X Minerals, the biggest mining fraud in Canadian history.

The Bre-X Gold Fraud: The Biggest Mining Scam in History

St. Paul, Alberta. A town of five thousand people in the Canadian prairies. The town’s only claim to fame is a UFO landing platform, built in 1967 for Canada’s centennial. A concrete pad with a sign inviting extraterrestrial visitors to land. Nothing ever landed. But in the mid-1990s, something stranger than aliens happened to this town. Chapter 18 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Bre-X Minerals, the biggest mining fraud in Canadian history.

The Great Soybean Fraud of 1963: Tanks Full of Water, Not Oil

Imagine you are a bank. Someone comes to you and says, “I have millions of pounds of soybean oil stored in tanks in New Jersey. Give me a loan.” You send an inspector. The inspector dips a measuring rod into the tank. Oil floats on top. Looks fine. You approve the loan. What you do not know is that 95% of the tank is filled with water and there is just a thin layer of oil floating on the surface.

The Great Soybean Fraud of 1963: Tanks Full of Water, Not Oil

Imagine you are a bank. Someone comes to you and says, “I have millions of pounds of soybean oil stored in tanks in New Jersey. Give me a loan.” You send an inspector. The inspector dips a measuring rod into the tank. Oil floats on top. Looks fine. You approve the loan. What you do not know is that 95% of the tank is filled with water and there is just a thin layer of oil floating on the surface.