Move over Madoff

Here's one I never heard before -- this Gregor MacGregor guy actually invented a whole country, with its own currency and bonds and everything.

Strangely, the Republic of Poyais later defaulted on its debt, though not before Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Buenos Aires, did the same. 

Let no one claim that the English don't know how to run a smashing good armchair banana republic.