The 400 Billion Dollar Birthday Bash

You know that movie where the guy has all the wealth and power in the world, gets overconfident, does something dumb and then loses it all? Well, here's a real-life dinner party that falls squarely into that "does something dumb" category.

Tyco Corporation CEO Dennis Kozlowski decided it would be fun to fly all of his guests to Sardinia and hold a week long party to celebrate his wife's 40th birthday. The menu for the big dinner included exotic shellfish, caviar, vodka streaming from the private parts of an ice sculpture in the form of Michelangelo's David and, for dessert, exploding layer cake in the shape of a woman's breasts. Classy, huh?

The bill came to just over two million dollars. Quite a bit of dough, no doubt, but it was just the beginning. Turns out Dennis had stolen a million of it from his employer. This became the centerpiece of his 2005 embezzlement trial, which resulted in his conviction.

The cost to his employer? About four hundred billion in stock market value. The cost to Dennis? An eight year prison sentence and divorce papers from his ungrateful wife.