Richard Behar is an award-winning American investigative journalist. He grew up in New York, graduated from NYU in 1982, and has written for Time, Fortune, and Forbes. He is known for fearless reporting on fraud, organized crime, terrorism, and corruption. His 1991 Time cover story, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," exposed Scientology and became widely cited. Behar has won more than 20 journalism awards, including the Gerald Loeb and George Polk Awards. In 2024, he published Madoff: The Final Word about Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. He is currently a contributing editor for investigations at Forbes magazine.