Money can't buy a lot of things: happiness, being the most well-known, and for this list of people, their way out of jail. These 51 people are not only some of the wealthiest people in the world, but they are also behind bars.
For these criminals, their money just isn't enough to save them.
52. Tom Sizemore ($3 million) - The actor, renowned for his roles in "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan," faced drug charges in Los Angeles, adding to a history of legal troubles. Sizemore also had domestic violence charges dating back to 2016 and 2003. Sizemore passed away on March 3, 2023, at the age of 61. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic51. Bobby Shmurda ($400,000) - Shmurda, 29, who was making waves in the hip hop scene, was arrested in 2014 on weapon, drug, and assault charges. In 2016, he pleaded guilty and received a seven-year prison sentence, later reduced to five years with credit for the two years he had already served awaiting trial. Released from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2021, he will remain on parole until his full sentence ends in February 2026. Mike Pont/FilmMagic50. Suge Knight ($200,000) - an American music executive and convicted felon, is the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. In September 2018, he pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run, resulting in a 28-year prison sentence. Eligible for parole in October 2034, when he will be 69 years old. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images49. C-Murder ($100,000) - American rapper Corey Miller, also known as C-Murder, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 16-year-old fan. He is currently serving his sentence. In 2018, two key witnesses recanted their statements, alleging they had been coerced by authorities into testifying against Miller. Skip Bolen/WireImage48. Joe Son ($1 million) - an MMA fighter and recognized for his portrayal of Random Task in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," faced charges of gang rape, kidnapping, and torture. In 2011, he received a sentence of seven years to life in prison. During his incarceration, Son fatally beat his cellmate, resulting in an additional 27-year sentence. He is currently serving 34 years life term. KBAK Channel 29 Eyewitness News47. Taymore Travon McIntyre ($250,000) - the 23-year-old Texas rapper known as Tay-K 47, is currently incarcerated for multiple robberies and murders. In July 2019, McIntyre was convicted for the murder of 21-year-old Ethan Walker. He received a 55-year prison sentence. In November 2019, McIntyre was indicted on a second murder charge for allegedly shooting 23-year-old Mark Anthony Saldivar. He is currently awaiting trial for this offense. YouTube Screenshot46. Kidd Creole (Nathanial Glover Jr.) ($2 million) - After a successful rap career that earned him a place in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, Creole eventually found himself unable to sustain a full-time career in music and took on various temporary jobs. In August 2017, Glover fatally stabbed a homeless man during a confrontation in Manhattan, New York City. In May 2022, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter. Johnny Nunez/WireImage45. Kodak Black ($600,000) - Black was caught trying to buy guns in Florida and lying about his criminal history. His four years prison term was commuted by President Donald Trump in 2021. Christopher Polk/Getty Images44. Trevone Boykin ($500,000) - Serving just a three-year sentence, Boykin is currently in prison for assaulting his girlfriend, allegedly breaking her jaw. Tom Pennington/Getty Images43. Chris Tavarez ($1 million-$5 million) - Tavarez, known for acting alongside Zendaya on "K.C. Undercover" was charged with domestic violence in 2020, and sentenced to 300 days in county jail. Amanda Edwards/WireImage42. William Jefferson ($800,000) - Former U.S. Rep Jefferson is eight years into a 13-year sentence on corruption charges. On October 5, 2017, he was ordered to be released pending sentencing or other actions, following a U.S. District judge's decision to dismiss 7 out of 10 charges against him. Subsequently, on December 1, 2017, his plea deal was accepted, and Jefferson was sentenced to time served. Mark Wilson/Getty Images41. Chaka Fattah ($175,000) - Another former U.S. Representative, received a ten-year prison sentence in 2016 on 23 counts of corruption charges, racketeering, and fraud. However, in 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia overturned Fattah's bribery convictions. Consequently, Fattah was released from prison in 2020. Earl Gibson III/Getty Images40. Chris Collins ($43.5 million) - Collins, a U.S. Rep, is on his way to prison. His prison time has been delayed due to COVID-19 concerns. He's been sentenced 26 months for insider trading and lying to the FBI. He commenced his sentence on October 13, 2020, at Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola. However, he received a pardon from President Donald Trump on December 22, 2020. Scott Heins/Getty Images39. Jared Fogle ($6 million) - Fogle was a spokesperson for Subway, crediting his major weight loss to consistently eating their sandwiches. He was indicted in 2015 with charges for child pornography and sex with minors. Fogle received a 15-year and 8-month prison sentence and is currently his prison term. David Lodge/FilmMagic38. Lyssa Chapman ($500,000) - Daughter of the reality TV star "Dog the Bounty Hunter," Lyssa was charged with harassment and resisting arrest in Hawaii. Chapman was released on bail, set at $500 for the harassment offense and $100 for the resisting arrest offense. Lucy Pemoni/FilmMagic37. Joshua Turner ($850,000) - Turner was caught in Tennessee on a warrant violating probation in Oregon. However, Turner was accidentally released from prison and shortly arrested again when found. Wanda Black/IMDB images36. Liliana Barrios ($1 million-$5 million) - The "Black Ink Crew" star was arrested for assault after finding her girlfriend in bed with another woman. ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images35. Jussie Smollett ($500,000) - The "Empire" actor filed a police report citing a fake hate crime. On March 10, 2022, he received a 150-day county jail sentence and two and a half years of probation. One year later, Smollett appealed against the 150-day sentence; the court, however, confirmed the conviction in December, 2023. Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images34. Julian Assange ($400,000) - Founder of Wikileaks, Assange released files documenting the murders of journalists and civilians. Assange is presently detained at Belmarsh, a high-security prison in the UK, due to a US extradition request. Jack Taylor/Getty Images33. Michael Avenatti ($20 million) - Avenatti gained recognition for representing adult filmstar Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against former U.S. President Donald Trump. However, he faced multiple convictions, including attempting to extort sports apparel company Nike and embezzling settlement funds from other clients. He has been incarcerated since 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images32. YNW Melly ($7.4 million) - A rising hip hop artist and YouTube star, Melly was charged with first-degree murder. He killed two of his friends in a drive-by shooting. In February 2019, he was arrested and could potentially face life imprisonment without parole or death penalty if convicted. Melly is also a suspect in a 2017 murder case. However, both his first and second trials resulted in hung juries. As of January 2024, his trial is still awaiting adjudication. Broward's Sheriff's Office via Getty Images31. Ghislaine Maxwell ($10 million) - In June 2022, Maxwell, the British socialite and longtime partner of American financier Jeffery Epstein, was convicted of conspiring with him to sexually abuse children. Following her arrest, a New York court sentenced her to twenty years behind bars. Mark Mainz/Getty Images30. Tom Hagen ($3.8 billion) - Tom Hagen, the 72-year-old property and energy magnate in Norway became the prime suspect in the disappearance of his wife from their home in Lørenskog. Hagen was arrested in April 2020 and subsequently charged with murder. However, he was released after 11 days when the Court of Appeal deemed the case insufficient to detain him. Despite this, the police have yet to drop the charges against him. VIDAR RUUD/AFP via Getty Images29. Zhou Zengyi ($320 million) - Zengyi made his fortune during China's real estate boom in the early 2000s. He was then sentenced in 2007 to 16 years in prison on charges of fraud and stock manipulation. Zhou has been released from prison in 2020, after serving 13 years sentence. China Photos/Getty Images28. Harvey Weinstein, the former American film producer, has been convicted of numerous sex crimes against women in Hollywood and has been sentenced to 39 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated at Mohawk Correctional Facility. Scott Heins/Getty Images27. Lori Loughlin ($8 million) - The former "Full House" star pled guilty to conspiracy charges and fraud earlier this year. She paid the University of Southern California $500,000 to secure her daughter's spot. She was sentenced to two months in prison in October 2020 and was released in December. Paul Marotta/Getty Images26. Jeffery Skilling ($500,000) - Former CEO of Enron Corporation, Skilling faced indictment on 35 counts of insider trading and fraud, and sentenced to 24 years in prison. In 2013 a deal with the United States Department of Justice led to a reduction in his sentence by ten years, bringing it down to 14 years. Skilling was released from custody in 2019 after serving 12 years in jail. STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP via Getty Images25. Bernie Madoff ($17 billion) - Now serving 150 years in a maximum-security prison, Madoff was a former NASDAQ stock exchange chairman. He ran the world's largest Ponzi scheme, defrauding his investors for over $50 billion. Madoff passed away at the age of 82 in 2021, while in prison. Stephen Chernin/Getty Images24. Phil Spector ($35 million) - Actress Lana Clarkson was found dead in Spector's home in 2003. He was a record producer for IMDb and has been in jail since 2009. Spector passed away in prison in 2021. Al Seib-Pool/Getty Images23. Viktor Bout ($6 billion) - Known as the "Merchant of Death," Bout alluded arrest for a long time. He profited from civil wars, terrorist organizations, and cartels. He supplied groups with AK-47s. The U.S. unknowingly hired him to supply troops in Iraq -- while actively searching for him. Bout spent a decade in prison before being released in a 2022 exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been detained in Russia. In 2023, Bout joined the Liberal Democratic Party and successfully won a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ulyanovsk Oblast. U.S. Department of Justice via Getty Images22. Martin Shkreli ($70 million) - The CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli, was arrested in 2015 for security fraud. Defrauding his investors and refusing to pay them back wasn't even the worst of his crimes. He raised the price of Daraprim by 5,500%. Shkreli was sentenced to 7 years in prison, fined $72 million, and released on parole after 6 years and 5 months. Following his release in May 2022, he was transferred to a halfway house. Mark Wilson/Getty Images21. Ding Yuxin (Multi-billionaire) - Yuxin's crime was bribery. She was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014. She paid the Railways Minister in Shanxi, China $49 million for government contracts. Xinhua/Getty Images20. Stewart Parnell (Multi-millionaire) - Parnell found himself in a sticky situation when--as the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America--nine people died from a salmonella outbreak in 2008 from his peanut butter paste. He was allegedly aware of the dangers and shipped the peanut butter anyway. In 2015, Parnell was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. He is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Hazelton. Mark Wilson/Getty Images19. Allen Stanford ($2.2 billion) - Once a prominent financier and sponsor of professional sports, Stanford is now serving a 110-year prison sentence for orchestrating an $8 billion Ponzi scheme. He is currently incarcerated in Florida. Tom Shaw/Getty Images18. Wong Kwong Yu ($1.6 billion) - Anticipating release in 2024, he was the founder of Gome Electrical Appliances. His conviction came in 2010 for bribery, stock manipulation, and insider trading. Following his conviction, a Chinese court sentenced Yu to 14 years in prison. Yu was released on probation in 2020. His probation period concluded in 2021. Chien-min Chung/Getty Images17. Np Lap Seng ($1.8 billion) - Seng, a Macau-based Chinese billionaire, was arrested for bribery charges, after making his fortune in real estate. In March 2021, a US judge granted his release from prison on "compassionate release." Ng Lap Seng returned to Macau in April 2021. Chien-min Chung/Getty Images16. John Kapoor ($175 million) - Founder of pharmaceutical company Insys, he was arrested earlier this year for bribing doctors to prescribe fentanyl to patients who didn't need it. He was convicted on May 2, 2019, to a 5.5-year prison sentence. Kapoor served two years of his sentence at Duluth FPC before being released in June 2023. His story was depicted in the Netflix movie "Pain Hustlers." STR/AFP via Getty Images15. Marco Muzzo ($1.8 billion) - In 2015, Marco Muzzo, intoxicated while driving from Toronto Pearson International Airport, caused a crash resulting in the deaths of three children and their grandfather. He was sentenced to a 10-year prison term and a 12-year driving ban. Released in 2020, he's under special conditions until July 2025. Muzzo earned day parole in 2020, affirming progress on alcohol issues. This allowed him to work at his family's construction business and reside in a halfway house at night. He gained full parole a year later.George Pimentel/Getty Images14. Marcelo Odebrecht (Multi-billionaire) - Brazil oil company Petrobras caught Odebrecht, along with many others, in the "Car Wash Scandal." This involved bribing Brazilian politicians. Odebrecht was released from jail in April, 2023. He had been doing community work at a hospital in exchange for a sentence reduction. Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images13. Actor Michael Jace gained recognition for his portrayal of a police officer in the series "The Shield." However, Jace's career took a tragic turn when he was arrested for fatally shooting his wife, April Jace. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison in 2016. He is currently serving his sentence. David McNew-PoolGetty Images12. Oliver Schmidt ($1 million) - Schmidt was implicated in Volkswagen's "Dieselgate," involving diesel trucks evading emissions standards. In December 2017, he was arrested in Miami and sentenced to 84 months (7 years) in federal prison. Schmidt was transferred to Germany in 2020. He was released in January 2021, after serving about half his sentence.automotivenews.com11. Raj Rajaratnam ($1.3 billion) - The 66-year-old Sri Lankan-American former hedge fund manager and the founder of Galleon Group was sentenced to 11 years in prison for making $63.8 million through insider trading on stocks such as eBay and Google. Rajaratnam was released from jail in 2019 after serving 7.5 years. In 2021, he published his memoir titled "Uneven Justice." Mario Tama/Getty Images10. Bernard Ebbers ($1.4 billion) - Kknown as the "Telecom Cowboy," Ebbers was the CEO of WorldCom. He began serving a 25-year sentence in 2006 for his involvement in an $11 billion accounting fraud. In December 2019, Ebbers was released due to declining health, after serving 13 years of his sentence. He passed away a month later. James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images9. Samuel Israel III (Multi-millionaire) - Israel, a multi-millionaire, orchestrated a $450 million Ponzi scheme through his Bayou Hedge Fund Group, leading to his conviction. In April 2008, he received a 20-year federal prison sentence. In an attempt to evade imprisonment, Israel faked his own suicide, resulting in an additional two-year prison term. He is currently incarcerated in North Carolina, with a scheduled release date in 2026. Earl Gibson III/Getty Images8. Eike Batista ($35 billion) - A Brazilian-German serial entrepreneur amassed his wealth primarily in the oil and gas industry. However, in 2018, he received a 30-year prison sentence for bribery and threats against government officials in Brazil. Batista is currently incarcerated. YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images7. Jouaquin Guzman Loera, aka “El Chapo” ($1 billion) - A former Mexican drug lord, escaped prison twice after bribing guards. Recaptured and extradited to the U.S. Loera was convicted of drug trafficking charges in 2019. He is serving a life sentence in ADX Florence, the most secure US prison. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images6. Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas ($2.7 billion) - A German-Colombian former drug lord, served a 55-year sentence in the US for crimes including kidnapping, drug trafficking, and murder. After 33 years of imprisonment, he was released due to health concerns. On June 15, 2020, he was escorted to Germany by US officials and handed over to German authorities. Drew Angerer/Getty Images5. Sam Hurd ($12 million) - Hurd was arrested while playing as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys for purchasing significant amounts of cocaine and marijuana. On November 13, 2013, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and served his time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texas. He completed his sentence on February 23, 2023. Joe Robbins/Getty Images4. War Machine ($100,000) - Formerly known as John Paul Koppenhaver, the ex-UFC fighter legally changed his name to War Machine. He gained notoriety as the prime suspect in a brutal sexual assault case involving adult film actress Christy Mack. On June 5, 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 36 years. Currently, he is serving a life sentence. Denise Truscello/WireImage3. Ray Nagin ($100,00) - Former Mayor of New Orleans was convicted of bribery and money laundering post-Hurricane Katrina in 2014, resulting in a ten-year federal prison sentence. He accepted over $500,000 in payouts from businessmen for city contracts worth millions. Though his possible release date was not earlier than May 25, 2023, Nagin was released to house arrest in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Skip Bolen/WireImage2. Tekashi 6ix9ine ($8 million) -the American rapper, was making his way through the music industry when he was arrested for conspiracy to murder and armed robbery. In February 2019, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he was put on house arrest for a five months until his full release in early August 2020. In early 2024, Tekashi was arrested by Dominican Republic authorities on charges of domestic violence. He was released under the condition of undergoing government counseling. Shareif Ziyadat/WireImage1. Bill Cosby ($400 million) - Bill Cosby, once a household name as an actor, musician, comedian, and author, faced a drastic shift in public perception when 60 women accused him of sexual assault and rape. He became the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, spending nearly three years in a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court overturned his conviction and released him in 2021. Despite his release, Cosby's legal troubles persist, with more allegations of sexual assault emerging against him. Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images
