Ivar Kreuger

Swedish entrepreneur and international financier called the "Swedish Match King," an international swindler on a grand scale. By 1924, he controlled 70% of the world's match production in a time when cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking were at an all time high around the world. A tycoon with enormous wealth, Kreuger hid from the international spotlight, shunning photographers and interviewers. Heavily borrowing from banks, Kreuger lost his reputation in the stock market crash of 1929. After his untimely death, the Swedish government suffered a freefall on the international money markets.

Kreuger was a businessman who started early in the match making industry. He made an attempt to try out his business acumen in property development but by 1913, returned to the match industry. He tried different underhanded schemes and unscrupulous methods to earn a larger profit such as raising the price on matches even though production costs remain cheap and reducing the number of matches in the box without consumer detection.

In 1916, Kreuger owned seven factories and bought rival firms in Sweden and in Europe. He established the mighty Swedish Match Trust. Taking advantage of the business climate during WWI, he used dishonest and unscrupulous methods to control the match industry. Kreuger turned to Swedish, French and American banks to finance his monopoly in the match industry. In 1925, he told bankers that he had advanced $12 million to the Spanish government with a guarantee of earning 16% a year interest on the loan. The gentleman's words were all the bankers needed to give him his enormous loans without examining the fictional papers that were allegedly endorsed by the Spanish Prime Minister on behalf of King Alfonso. Again in 1925, Kreuger told bankers in America and France that the Polish government borrowed from his estate with the same fictitious arrangements as Spain.