But one heist dwarfs all these, and you probably don’t even know about it.
Most of the 17-strong gang were captured and imprisoned, but Ronnie Biggs and Charles Wilson notoriously both escaped. Leonardo was arrested, though his entire crew got away. Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was a greedy man. So whodunit? He was sentenced to 150 years in prison. They have become favorite vehicles of the criminal and corrupt. Blood’s plan involved costumes, a fake title, a fake wife (played by a prostitute) and a fake nephew which he claimed would marry the daughter of Talbot Edwards — the Keeper of the Jewels. He is widely believed to have taken between US$5 billion and US$10 billion, through government loans, bribes, embezzlement, taking over private companies and outright theft. He sent his son and personal assistant with a hand-written note to the bank’s governor, telling him to hand over, Also known as “Gribodemon” and “Harderman,” this Russian cyberthief was responsible for. Nobody was ever arrested, and not one of the pieces has ever been recovered. His humble target? This one may sound familiar to anyone who’s seen 30 Minutes or Less, but the real story is far more tragic. In 2003, a middle-aged pizza deliveryman walked into a bank, handed the teller a note asking for the money in the vault — and then lifted his shirt to display a collar bomb around his neck and chest. After several visits, Blood convinced the Master to let him and three accomplices into the jewel vault, then clubbed and bound him, sawed the royal sceptre in half and flattened St Edward’s Crown with a mallet, while one of them hid the Royal Orb in his breeches.

Qusay then removed about $1 billion (£810 million) in $100 dollar notes in strongboxes, requiring three lorries to carry it all. Even thieves who don’t necessarily share their robbed riches with the poor still seem to retain the adoration of fans who live vicariously through their daring escapades.Â. “Bribery was nothing less than standard operating procedure at Siemens,” said a US official, using “the time-tested method of suitcases filled with cash.” It paid the largest-ever corporate fines related to foreign bribery, in the US and Germany. Approximately $650 million (£525 million) was found later by US troops hidden in the walls of one of Saddam’s palaces.
In 2009, an otherwise docile police force in Sweden had to face a highly organized gang of daring criminals, in the country’s first ever “Helicopter robbery.” The crew of thieves used a stolen helicopter to land on the roof of a cash depot building. Empty frames currently hang in the room, in homage to the missing art and in hopes that they will one day be returned. This is one of the greater unsolved mysteries in American crime. He sent his son and personal assistant with a hand-written note to the bank’s governor, telling him to hand over US$920 million and €90 million.

Nigerian officials have managed to reclaim a small part of the money through smart sleuthing and hard-fought legal battles.

In March 2016 seven men with a combined age of 443 years were sentenced at the Old Bailey for breaking into a Hatton Garden security deposit vault in one of the most audacious heists in living memory.

That US$1.1 billion could have been used to fully immunize every single child under 5 in the country. That amount was nearly double the country’s combined annual budgets for health and education in 2012. Forget Bonnie and Clyde and Jesse James. How much was stolen as a result? “He commercialized the wholesale theft of financial and personal information,” said a US official. If you add up all of the money from these heists, it doesn’t come close to $1 trillion. Northern Bank Robbery.