Voltaire, a famous philosopher and writer of the 18th century, was massively wealthy. He gained his wealth through some not-technically-illegal shenanigans with the early French lottery system.
The lottery system was majorly flawed and offered more prize money than the total cost of tickets. Voltaire rounded up a group of friends to buy most of the tickets and win the lottery. They repeated this numerous times until the French government caught on and discontinued the system.
We are not responsible for the contents of external links. Full disclaimer can be found here.
Information sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/05/opinion/l-how-voltaire-made-a-killing-in-the-lottery-238061.html
Photo Credits / Sources:
After Maurice Quentin de La Tour [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons