Top 10 Times Cheaters Faced Justice
#10: Tim Donaghy
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2008 Usually, sports referees are seen as an authority of integrity. Well, NBA veteran Tim Donaghy must have missed that lesson at basketball officiating school. In 2007, news leaked that Donaghy was being investigated for betting on the games he had worked in, with accusations that he manipulated the points spread. He apparently worked closely with two high school friends in this conspiracy. That same year, Donaghy pleaded guilty to providing others with inside tips in exchange for cash if the advice was successful. For his troubles, he was fined $530,000 in total. Then, in 2008, Donaghy was sentenced to prison for 15 months. He was released in 2009.
#9: Kerry Dee Ketchum
1988 For four days in 1987, Patrick Quinn was on a roll on the quiz show “Super Password.” So much so that he netted himself a record-setting $56,000. While the audience enjoyed seeing someone winning some cash, one person did not. Instead, they realized that Quinn wasn’t who he said he was. In fact, his real name was Kerry Dee Ketchum, and he used the name of his college professor. So, he was arrested when he went to pick up his game show winnings. Wanted in three US states, Ketchum had fraudulently filed a $100,000 life insurance policy on his ex-wife, who was alive and well and knew nothing about the scam. In 1988, Ketchum got five years in prison for his deception.
#8: Bihar School Examination Board
2016 In 2016, the Indian state of Bihar celebrated exam results. As such, Ruby Rai, the Arts and Humanities topper, was interviewed by the press along with science topper Saurabh Shrestha. But then, it all fell apart. During questioning, Rai began by mispronouncing “political science” to “prodikal science.” Shen then claimed the subject dealt with cooking…it did not. While Shrestha didn’t know what electrons or protons were. This caused an investigation to launch. Authorities discovered that corruption had run riot in the Bihar School Examination Board. They had manipulated the results of some kids in exchange for cash. In the retest, most of the kids failed. Rai was sentenced to two weeks in prison, while numerous board members also got jail terms.
#7: Marion Jones
2008 After her performance at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Marion Jones was one of the most celebrated US athletes after collecting three gold and two bronze medals. But a few years later, that legacy was tarnished. After the BALCO scandal erupted, Jones's results were called into question as people close to her were implicated in the doping controversy. They even pointed the finger at the athlete's involvement. However, she denied the allegations. But, in 2007, Jones admitted her guilt about using steroids and that she lied during the investigation. As a result, all her medals and records after 2000 were stripped from her. In 2008, Jones was sentenced to prison for six months.
#6: Carlos Arthur Nuzman
2021 The 2010s was an important decade for sports in Brazil. As not only did they host the 2014 FIFA World Cup but also the 2016 Olympic Games. However, the latter was soon tainted in a corruption conspiracy. Carlos Arthur Nuzman was the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee as well as chair and president of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016. But in 2017, it all fell apart when he was accused of buying votes for the Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro as part of Operation Car Wash. In 2021, Nuzman was sentenced to 30 years and 11 months for corruption, tax evasion, organized crime, and money laundering.
#5: Herb Stempel
1960 In 1956, Herb Stempel took his talents onto the game show “Twenty-One” and raked up a long winning streak. However, he later claimed that producer Dan Enright coached him. When the show wanted to boost ratings with a new champion in Charles Van Doren, they scripted Stempel’s loss. Along with similar incidents taking place in “The Big Surprise” and “Dotto,” this eventually led to a grand jury inquiry, resulting in several suspended sentences for those that pleaded guilty. In 1959, an investigation by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight took place. Van Doren, who originally denied the allegations, admitted the truth and lost his job at NBC in the process. In 1960, the Communications Act was amended to prohibit similar shenanigans from happening again.
#4: Felicity Huffman
2019 Typically, parents want their kids to get the best in life. But breaking the law to achieve that is not a great idea. In 2019, the college admissions scam was discovered. And one of the main offenders was “Desperate Housewives” actor Felicity Huffman. The previous year, she had made a $15,000 charity donation. However, investigators claimed this was a payment to have her daughter’s SAT results boosted. Huffman later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. She was sentenced to 14 days in prison, one year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, and fined $30,000. (Xref) Another celeb involved in the scam was “Full House” icon Lori Loughlin. She received a two-month sentence and was fined $150,000.
#3: Chicken Drumstick
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2021 With the amazing operation name of Chicken Drumstick, it doesn’t sound like it would be the title of a multi-million-dollar criminal conspiracy, but here we are. Given this name by the police but originally called Sharpshooter, then Cheat Ninja, a raid took place on a video game cheating ring in 2021. With the help of game company Tencent, Chinese authorities seized $46 million in assets from the group and arrested 10 members. Reportedly, the criminal empire was raking in around $76 million for creating codes for games like “PUBG Mobile” and “Call of Duty,” with subscribers paying up to $200 per month for the swindling service.
#2: Lance Armstrong
2012 With Lance Armstrong leading the helm and collecting seven consecutive Tour de France wins, the sport of cycling was seemingly growing more and more popular. After all, his heroic story of surviving cancer to become a trophy-collecting machine was inspiring. But then, 2012 happened. After several years of doping allegations, the United States Anti-Doping Agency had enough evidence to charge Armstrong. Since he didn’t appeal the charges, he was stripped of all his titles after 1998 and banned from the sport for life. In 2013, Armstrong admitted his guilt in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Afterward, he faced a $100 million civil lawsuit from the US Government and Floyd Landis, which was settled for $5 million.
#1: Charles Ingram
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2003 In September 2001, Major Charles Ingram took on the challenge of the UK’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Amazingly, he went all the way and became the third person to win £1 million on the show! However, something was amiss. He regularly changed his mind on answers at the last second, and there seemed to be coughing in the audience during certain questions, potentially influencing Ingram. In 2003, he, his wife Diana, and another contestant Tecwen Whittock were convicted of conspiracy to cheat the quiz show. Each was given suspended prison sentences and received fines. Ingram was later forced to resign from the British Army. The couple, who are adamant they did no wrong, has appealed the conviction several times but with limited success.
