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John Rigas

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (November 14, 1924-September 30, 2021)
    Born in Wellsville, New York
    Founded the cable company Adelphia Communication (1952)
    Bought the Buffalo Sabres (1997)
    Indicted on charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud (2002)
    Convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison (June 27, 2005)
    Granted compassionate release after being diagnosed with bladder cancer (February 19, 2016)

Why he might be annoying:

    He overdrew his bank account when he purchased his first cable franchise for $300 (1952).
    He had Adelphia spend hundreds of millions of dollars on his personal expenses.
    He and his sons Timothy and Michael took out over $2 billion in loans from Adelphia that were left off the company books.
    A court statement noted, 'The Rigases, not Adelphia, used Adelphia's credit and its bank accounts to purchase assets and operate their own private ventures. In short, the Rigases have been enriched while Adelphia suffered.
    Adelphia went bankrupt (2005), with its assets being purchased by Comcast and TimeWarner.
    The NHL took over control of the Sabres after his indictment, although he remained the official owner until the team was sold to Tom Golisano (2003).

Why he might not be annoying:

    During World War II, he served in the 20th Armored Division, which saw combat in France and liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
    He was named Buffalo's most powerful and most respected businessman in a newspaper survey of local leaders (2001).
    He was not allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of Doris Nielsen, his wife of 61 years (2014).
    Some observers felt his financial transgressions had been blown out of proportion; for example, John C. Malone, an executive at a rival cable company, said, 'The SEC had been asleep at the wheel and was embarrassed by Enron and WorldCom, and so the first chance they got to whack somebody, they did.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 149 Votes: 70.47% Annoying