John Rigas

John Rigas was the founder of Adelphia Communications Corporation. He was forced to resign from his position as CEO in May 2002 after being indicted for bank, wire, and securities fraud. Timothy J. Rigas and Michael J. Rigas, his sons, as well as Peter Venetis, his son-in-law, and Michael Mulcahey were also charged with participation in these crimes. The executives are accused of looting the corporation by concealing $2.3 billion in liabilities from corporate investors and of using corporation funds as their personal funds. The Rigases lived a lavish lifestyle for which they encountered no public criticism from others in their social class. Adelphia Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy after it had acknowledged that the three Rigases had taken $3.1 billion in loans that were not recorded on the books.

John Rigas was a major campaign contributor to the Republican Party of the United States and to individual Republican Party candidates. For example, in the 1999-2000 election cycle, he gave $1200000 to the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania, $400000 to the Big Tent PAC, $25000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $100000 to George W. Bush, $2000.0 to Michael Bilirakis, $2,00000 to Jack Quinn, $1,000 to John E. Peterson, $1000 to Conrad Burns, $1000 to Tom Reynolds, $1000 to Arlen Specter, and $50000 to George Allen.