Ivar Kreuger

Swedish entrepreneur who built the world's largest match monopoly — controlling two-thirds of global match production — and who financed his empire through fraudulent bonds sold to American investors, creating history's most sophisticated financial fraud before dying (suicide or murder) in 1932 as the scheme collapsed.

Built a global monopoly through a genuine business insight (match production was naturally monopolistic and cash-generative) but then maintained growth through fraud — the scheme being so sophisticated that the world's best accountants at Ernst & Ernst missed it, and Price Waterhouse certified accounts that were completely fabricated.