10. PUPPIES

Between 2003 and 2009, the United States Army began a modernization program that envisioned faster, more maneuverable brigades with smaller vehicles capable of inserting into a combat zone on very short notice all over the world. The program was called Future Combat Systems (FCS), and it was projected to cost a total of $340 billion by the time it was implemented.FCS was never fielded, and it failed to meet deadlines before Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called for a restructure and final cancellation of the program in 2009. Nine planned manned ground vehicles were scrapped or rolled into other programs following the cut. The Department of Defense spent more than $18 billion on FCS during the program’s six-year development.


9. Dissertation

While academic fraud exists throughout the world of higher education, it has become an outright epidemic in Russia. In the last few years, more than 1,000 powerful, prominent Russians have been found to have plagiarized academic work in college. The discoveries began when a loose collection of activists calling itself Dissernet formed in 2013. It uses plagiarism detection software to scour dissertations throughout academia; to date, it has recorded over 5,600 instances of plagiarism and published reports on over 1,300 of them. A multitude of firms posing as “academic consulting” companies peddle the plundered material on professional looking websites. Those found to have used these services to help them obtain degrees are varied indeed; bureaucrats, police and prosecutorial officials, heads of universities, and the head of the country’s top investigating authority have all been named. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of swiping parts of his 2006 Ph.D. Thesis.

8. Amber

The global market for amber exceeds $1 billion per year, and 90 percent of the world’s reserves can be found in Kaliningrad, Russia. This also happens to be an economically depressed area where jobs are scarce and don’t pay anything resembling a living wage, causing about half of the region’s able-bodied workers to supplement their income by illegally mining amber.One lawmaker estimates the illegal haul at 350–400 tons per year, roughly 10 times what the legal operations produce. Flawless pieces are literally worth more than their weight in gold, and those with insects trapped inside can bring five- or six-figure sums.


7. Tiger Parts

Demand for the body parts of tigers is also booming in many Asian countries, and whereas once they were chiefly used for medicinal purposes, consumption has shifted largely to luxury goods such as tiger bone wine—made by soaking the skeleton of a tiger in rice wine—and, of course, their skins.One temple in Thailand is home to over 140 endangered tigers, generating over $3 million per year from tourism; while this has long been controversial, the temple has recently been found to be actively participating in the illegal tiger trade. Although all the animals are required to be microchipped by the Thai government, a former employee has revealed that the chips are often simply cut out, and the tigers sold. A subsequent investigation found many of the animals to be missing and others to be without microchips, and the carcass of a dead tiger was discovered in a freezer.