John Rigas was the founder of Adelphia Communications Corporation. He was forced to resign from his position as CEO in May 2002 after being indicted for bank, wire, and securities fraud. Timothy J. Rigas and Michael J. Rigas , his sons, as well as Peter Venetis, his son-in-law, and Michael Mulcahey were also charged with participation in these crimes. The executives are accused of looting the corporation by concealing $2.3 billion in liabilities from corporate investors and of using corporation funds as their personal funds. The Rigases lived a lavish lifestyle for which they encountered no public criticism from others in their social class. Adelphia Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy after it had acknowledged that the three Rigases had taken $3.1 billion in loans that were not recorded on the books.

John Rigas was a major campaign contributor to the Republican Party of the United States and to individual Republican Party candidates. For example, in the 1999-2000 election cycle, he gave $12,000.00 to the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania, $4,000.00 to the Big Tent PAC , $250.00 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $1,000.00 to George W. Bush, $2,000.00 to Michael Bilirakis, $2,000.00 to Jack Quinn, $1,000 to John E. Peterson, $1,000 to Conrad Burns, $1,000 to Tom Reynolds, $1,000 to Arlen Specter, and $500.00 to George Allen.