This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

In the mid-1980s, Barry Minkow was the toast of Wall Street. His Zzzz Best Carpet Cleaning company, which he started in his garage at age 16, was an overnight success and, by 19, he was a millionaire. Investors flocked to buy stock in the fast-growing company that was earning millions from lucrative restoration projects.

There was just one problem: the restoration projects weren't real, the company was little more than an elaborate Ponzi scheme, and Minkow wasn't making his money cleaning carpets. He was laundering money for the mob. After a Los Angeles Times reporter broke the story on Minkow's fraud, the scheme unraveled and Zzzz Best filed for bankruptcy. Minkow was charged with pretty much every white-collar crime known to man, and he spent seven and a half years in federal prison.

But that's only the beginning of the Barry Minkow story: Minkow attended college from his cell, was paroled early at the urging of the judge who sentenced him, and became a pastor in San Diego -- not far from the scene of his crimes. Using the skills he learned committing fraud, Minkow set about uncovering it and, to date, has helped the FBI and other government agencies bust up more than $1 billion in fraudulent investment schemes: an amount far larger than the crime Minkow perpetrated.

Most recently, Minkow has gained notoriety for his accusations of fraud at leading multilevel marketing companies Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) and Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ: USNA).

Let us know in the comments what you remember about Zzzz Best. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.

Prosecutors are now saying that disgraced former Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu pressured high-profile figures to make donations through him in order to boost his public persona -- Then he used the facade of credibility this constructed to to fund a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of millions.

Hsu also allegedly gave people money to make donations, which is a crime. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). "In one case, the complaint says, an investor donated $32,000 in 2006 to multiple campaigns, and Mr. Hsu agreed to reimburse the person. Another investor donated $28,600 in 2006 to multiple candidates, and Mr. Hsu wrote reimbursement checks, the complaint says."

Sam E. Antar, the CFO behind the infamous Crazy Eddie Fraud and now the author of the blog White Collar Fraud, explained how fraudsters construct images to coax investors into trusting them:

Fraudsters like myself, we build a whole world of respectability around ourselves. I gave money to a lot of charities while I was committing my fraud. My cousin Eddie, he gave a lot of money with his stolen money to a lot of charities. He gave a lot of money to politicians. He built wings on to hospitals and built a big aura of respectability around him and people were in awe of him. This is what fraudsters do.

In a recent post, Gary Weiss makes the case that Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is doing something similar with his support for a school voucher program.

Here's some pretty strong evidence that Americans could use some more financial literacy and fraud prevention training. The SEC filed securities fraud charges today against what the Commission called a "Internet-based Ponzi scheme that raised $41.9 million in just four months from over 20,000 investors worldwide".

That's a lotta lettuce. PhoenixSurf.com offered "investors" an elaborate scheme wherein they could earn returns of 120% in 8 days. Warren Buffett eat your heart out!

The defendants, Jonathan W. Mikula, 21 and Gabriel J. Frankewich, 29, both of Georgia, settled the charges without admitting or denying guilt by disgorging their ill-gotten gains.

The fact that what appears to be such an obvious Ponzi scheme, just based on the returns offered, was able to attract so much money is indicative of how ignorant a lot of people are when it comes to protecting themselves from scams.

Walter Ricciardi summed it up well in an interview with the Associated Press: 'If it looks too good to be true, it probably is... Promises or guarantees of double-digit returns in a matter of days or weeks are highly suspicious and the investor should exercise extreme caution."

It looks like the same greed that inspired Mikula and Frankewich allowed a lot of people to be conned out of their hard-earned money.