
Unlike the rest of the frauds on the list, Poehlman is a standout guy for being such a douche that they had to put him in prison afterwards. He was the first fraud ever to go to jail in the US based entirely on the intense cock-like behavior he engaged in and pawned off as actual work.
A professor at the University of Vermont, Poehlman's subject was obese, menopausal women, so we guess we can't really blame him for making a bunch of shit up in lieu of doing actual research.

If you've ever heard that women during menopause should take hormones, it was thanks to Poehlman whose research gave us that conclusion. And if you're now midway through this entry in an article on Cracked.com about medical frauds, you may have just realized something; hormones don't do shit for menopausal women. In fact, they may actually cause damage.

"Science is whatever I say it is."
Poehlman's theory was that women go through various kinds of old lady decay during menopause and that hormones, here to mean: "magic," would fix it. When the facts didn't really match his idea, he just changed them. The result was that for years millions of women were prescribed hormones that likely held no benefits or may have caused them potential harm.
In all Poehlman ended up falsifying 17 grants and punking off $2.9 million that probably otherwise would have gone to valid scientific research on things like what makes lemonade so refreshing and why boobies are wicked awesome.

Like you didn't see these coming.
The good doctor ended up facing criminal charges and was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison where presumably he became well acquainted with hormone samples from his fellow inmates.
For more scientists and their world threatening research, check out 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World. Or find out why scientists have Chris Bulchoz excited in Science Wants to Build Dinosaurs to Fight Terror. Also Shits, Giggles.