The confidence trick, scaled to institutions.
Enron was an American energy, commodities and services company founded in 1985 through a merger. It grew into a major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company — then collapsed due to institutionalised, systematic accounting fraud. Its 2001 bankruptcy was the largest fraud-related bankruptcy in U.S. history. It reorganised as Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. in 2004.
Vivendi is a French investment company headquartered in Paris, founded in 1853 as Compagnie générale des eaux. It evolved through mergers and diversification — notably becoming Vivendi Universal in 2000 via merger with Groupe Canal+ and Seagram — before reverting to Vivendi in 2006. From 2021, it executed a strategic spin-off of its core assets, culminating in 2024 with the separation of Canal+, Havas, and Louis Hachette Group, transforming itself into a focused investment company holding stakes in media and entertainment firms.
GSK plc is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company formed in 2000 by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. It traces its origins to Henry Wellcome’s 1880 co-founding of Burroughs Wellcome & Company. GSK developed the first malaria vaccine (RTS,S), markets WHO-listed essential medicines, and reported $42.4 billion in revenue and $9.32 billion in earnings in 2025. In 2012, it pleaded guilty in the US to unlawful drug promotion, failure to report safety data, and physician kickbacks — agreeing to a $3 billion settlement, the largest healthcare fraud case in US history and the largest in the pharmaceutical industry. The Wellcome Foundation Ltd., established by Henry Wellcome in 1924, was later sold to GSK following changes in UK charity law.
Theranos was a health technology company founded in 2003 in Palo Alto, California, that falsely claimed to perform rapid, accurate blood tests using minimal blood volume via proprietary devices; investigations revealed it relied on conventional machines, produced inaccurate results, voided two years of Edison data, and misrepresented its capabilities to investors, partners, and regulators.