Vanguard Group founder John Bogle may be 80 years old, but the crusader for individual investors is still going strong, continuing to lash out at the lazy, incompetent, and conflicted institutional money managers who have failed in their fiduciary responsibilities to their investors.

In a brilliant op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Bogle writes that "... far too many of our corporate and financial agents have failed to honor the interests of their principals -- the mutual fund investors and pension beneficiaries to whom they owed a fiduciary duty. The ramifications were widespread -- for the failure of money managers to observe the principles of fiduciary duty played a major role in allowing our corporate managers to place their own interests ahead of the interests of their shareholders."

We recently presented a look at some of the most notorious financial felons of contemporary times.

Since then, news has included the indictment of Mark Cuban for insider trading in a case that is somewhat reminiscent of Martha Stewart's case. According to the SEC, the billionaire entrepreneur asked his broker to sell all his shares of Mamma.com after the company's CEO confidentially told him of an impending stock offering that would dilute the value of all existing shares. By selling before the information became public, Cuban is said to have sidestepped losses of more than $750,000. Cuban insists, though, that no agreement existed to keep the information confidential.

And then there was the indictment in Texas of Vice President Dick Cheney, along with former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others. There seems to be a conflict of interest between the vice president's influence on the federal agency that oversees federal immigration detention centers and his substantial holdings in Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies. But does the lame-duck county district attorney, who was a no-show in court, have the authority to bring charges against federal officials with regard to federally run institutions?

While Robert Kiyosaki (of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame) has railed against mutual funds for years (while simultaneously suggesting multilevel marketing schemes), it appears that he may have been right: rich people really don't seem to like mutual funds. According to a study discussed in the Wall Street Journal (registration required) few wealthy investors are satisfied with the performance of their mutual funds. With good reason: over the long-term, passively managed index funds outperform most mutual funds.

One of the few fund companies that earned high marks from high net-worth investors is Vanguard Group, which was among the first companies to offer mutual funds. Vanguard still offers some of the lowest cost index funds around and, if you only choose one fund company for your retirement planning, Vanguard may be the way to go. Congratulations Vanguard, and keep up the good work.

On a side note, Vanguard founder John Bogle has written some amazing books about business and investing: Common Sense on Mutual Funds and The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism belong on the bookshelf of every serious investor. If Common Sense seems too intimidating, pick up his new Little Book of Common-Sense Investing instead. While it really is a little book, it has everything you need to know to beat the vast majority of professional money managers.