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Topic: Charles Ponzi

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	History and Nature of Ponzi Schemes
		Ponzi noticed that the coupon he had received from Italy had been purchased in Spain and found that the reason for this was that the price in Spain was exceptionally low.
		Ponzi's publicity was reaching primarily the immigrant community of the North End of Boston, the community which Ponzi himself was part of.
		When Ponzi was charged with grand larceny and using the mails to defraud he told his public that all of his troubles came from the fact that the wealthy were trying to punish him for giving the "little guys" the opportunity to make a high rate of return.
	www2.sjsu.edu /faculty/watkins/ponzi.htm (1242 words)

	Charles Ponzi
		Charles Ponzi was born in Parma, Italy, in 1882.
		Ponzi, who swindled the gullible out of millions by 1920, invented what came to be known as a Ponzi Scheme, a scam in which early investors are paid with money from new investors (similar to today's "pyramid scheme").
		Carlo "Charles" Ponzi died in the charity ward of a Rio de Janeiro hospital in 1949, at the age of 67.
	www.u-s-history.com /pages/h1800.html (890 words)

	Educate Yourself - Charles Ponzi (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		In Charles Ponzi's case it was sort of like a chain letter in which he would borrow money without collateral, promising to pay $15 for every $10 left with him for 90 days.
		Ponzi is not to be classed in the same category with robbers and burglars, he was undoubtedly a clever manipulator who took advantage of the credulity of the investing public, which in this instance is the usurer.
		It was finally resolved that Charles Ponzi had taken in some $15 million in 8 months, and that his books showed a deficit of $5 million; less than $200,000 was eventually recovered from his holdings.
	www.buyandhold.com /bh/en/education/ponzi.html (1420 words)

	Frauds and Scams Introduction \| Crimes of Persuasion - A Resource for Investigators
		Ponzi offered investors a choice between a fifty percent return on a 45 day investment and a 100% return on a 90 day investment.
		Ponzi claimed that this return on investment was possible due to his unique understanding of the international postal reply coupon system; by international agreement, postal reply coupons were recognized by all countries but the cost of these coupons varied dramatically from country to country depending upon their economy.
		A Ponzi Scheme, by definition, is a scheme and artifice to defraud that was insolvent from its inception.
	www.fraudsandscams.com /ponzi.htm (577 words)

	Charles Ponzi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Charles Ponzi (1882–January 18, 1949) was an Italian immigrant to the United States who became one of the greatest swindlers in American history.
		Ponzi noticed the postal coupon purchased in Europe for about one cent in American funds could be cashed in for about six American one-cent stamps.
		Ponzi lived luxuriously: he bought a mansion with air conditioning and a heated swimming pool, and brought his mother from Italy in a first-class stateroom on an ocean liner.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Charles_Ponzi (2734 words)

	Rip-Off Artist - The Boston Globe
		Ponzi was a human dynamo, handsome in his own way, with a regal nose, dimpled chin, and full lips that curved upward in a barely suppressed grin.
		Privately, Ponzi assessed the situation and reached a troubling conclusion: "They had me by the small of the neck, and the best that I could do was squirm." Though he could not denounce them directly, he would sic his Pinkerton agents on them to dig up whatever dirt they could find.
		Ponzi explained the situation, strongly suggesting that Old Colony was deceiving the public by making investors think they were trusting their money to a firm associated with Ponzi.
	www.boston.com /news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/03/06/rip_off_artist (2767 words)

	The Ponzi Scheme
		Ponzi had managed to pay off all of his notes in the promised forty-five days and, since everyone was happy to get their earnings, not a single complaint had ever been filed.
		Ponzi obliged and assured the public that his organization was financially stable and that he could meet all obligations.
		Ponzi died in January of 1949 in the charity ward of a Rio de Janeiro hospital.
	home.nycap.rr.com /useless/ponzi (2027 words)

	Charles Ponzi
		Ponzi, who fleeced Bostonians out of millions in 1920, did not invent what has come to be known as a Ponzi scheme, a scam in which early investors are paid with money from new investors.
		But Ponzi did it on such a grand scale, with such flair and in such full view of the world and the media, that he earned his place in criminal history.
		As the program Ponzi claimed to be involved in to generate the large returns was not real, he couldn't pay back investors as they came in increasing numbers asking for their money back.
	www.goldhaven.com /scam_page/Ponzi.htm (628 words)

	Riches to rags: how legendary fraud Charles Ponzi's schemes crumbled Washington Monthly - Find Articles (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		It's easy to interpret Ponzi's failure to abscond with the loot as an indicator that he was only half a scammer--excellent at the fraud part of the equation, but not so strong on the endgame.
		Unlike Ponzi, who had to scrape through lean years working menial jobs and enduring a few prison stints, Grozier was the stereotypical scion of privilege--his father edited the paper before him, and Richard ascended to the job despite disastrous careers at Exeter and Harvard.
		Ponzi initially believed there was some way around this and began issuing certificates to investors that promised a 50-percent return on principal after 90 days.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m1316/is_3_37/ai_n13257356 (1000 words)

	Ponzi Schemes and Bubble Scam Investment Frauds
		Ponzi schemes eventually collapse because the underlying asset upon which the investment was based either never existed, or was grossly overvalued.
		Because a ponzi scheme is technically insolvent, in the sense that its liabilities exceed its assets from the first day it does business, it can only continue until the pool of gullible new investors dries up.
		Ponzi schemes can be applied to almost any business or investment, so when it fails, as it must, people often deem it a poor investment rather than an elaborate hoax.
	www.crimes-of-persuasion.com /Crimes/InPerson/MajorPerson/ponzi.htm (2159 words)

	Charles K Ponzi. Chapter 2, the "Ponzi Scheme" (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		In 1909, Ponzi was convicted of forgery in events surrounding the collapse of the Montreal banking firm of Zrossi and Co., of which he was a member.
		Ponzi claimed this problem was solved by having the coupons redeemed overseas, outside of the federal government's jurisdiction.
		[Ponzi's] account with the trust company indicated that he was not employing the money received from the enterprise, but was using it, without interest, for the purpose of paying his notes as or before they matured, and that such was the fact was, or should have been, known to the officials of the trust company.
	www.enterprise21.com /faq/ponzi2.htm (3490 words)

	"Ponzi" Schemes (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents into investing in a postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s.
		Ponzi told investors that he could provide a 40% return in just 90 days compared with 5% for bank savings accounts.
		Ponzi was deluged with funds from investors, taking in $1 million during one three-hour period—and this was 1921!
	www.sec.gov /answers/ponzi.htm (163 words)

	Ponzi Schemes - Doublers - Earning From The Net
		Charles Ponzi recruited new investors and used their funds to pay earlier investors.
		Charles Ponzi was imprisoned and from that day, scams that mimicked this approach became known as 'ponzi schemes'.
		Owning a ponzi scheme, investing in a ponzi scheme or permitting a ponzi scheme to be promoted through your website or advertising network may be illegal.
	www.my-online-income-streams.com /par/15w/ponzi-schemes-doublers.shtml (989 words)

	Random House Publishing Group \| Ponzi's Scheme by Mitchell Zuckoff (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		Ponzi’s Scheme is the amazing true story of the irresistible scoundrel who launched the most successful scheme of financial alchemy in modern history–and uttered the first roar of the Roaring Twenties.
		Ponzi may have been a charlatan, but he was also a wonderfully likable man. His intentions were noble, his manners impeccable, his sales pitch enchanting.
		Ponzi is a classic American tale of immigrant life and the dream of success, and the unexpectedly moving story of a man who–for a fleeting, illusory moment–attained it all.
	www.randomhouse.com /rhpg/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=1588364488 (638 words)

	B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper
		Ponzi’s legacy is in the vernacular — the phrase Ponzi scheme refers to a type of pyramid scheme in which a new investor’s money is used to pay off an earlier investor’s return.
		Ponzi was born in Lugo, Italy, in 1882, and came to the United States in 1903 after dropping out of the University of Rome.
		Ponzi’s business, the Securities Exchange Company, was founded on the premise of using international postal reply coupons — whereby people could buy a coupon in one country and redeem it for stamps in another — to exploit discrepancies between strong and weak currencies.
	www.bu.edu /bridge/archive/2005/03-25/zuckoff.html (1055 words)

	Ponzi Schemes
		Ponzi saw that he could make a small profit buying International Postal Reply Coupons, which could be redeemed for stamps in a number of countries.
		In this crowded and fast-changing marketplace, Charles Ponzi's successors have an increasing number of costumes with which to dress up their schemes and shield them from detection.
		In one scam, promotional materials indicated that a commodities pool operation was licensed by state and federal governments, that losses were limited to 50 percent of an investor's funds, and that the pool traded more than $100 million in commodity futures contracts in each of the past five years.
	www.psc.state.pa.us /investor/brochures/ponzi.html (1097 words)

	Amazon.com: Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend: Books: Mitchell Zuckoff (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		Charles Ponzi was a common man that on the surface became wealthy and everyone rooted for him.
		The story of Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant to America, is a fast-moving rollercoaster of a tale told with skill by Zuckoff.
		Ponzi made his money by selling the public on the fact that they would indeed be able to make a profit and then proving sufficiently capable of doing so that the needed new deposits continued to pour in to his fund.
	www.amazon.com /Ponzis-Scheme-Story-Financial-Legend/dp/1400060397 (2690 words)

	Innovation Odyssey - The Technology Trail
		Charles Ponzi managed to accrue an estimated $15 million in 1920, with a mansion in Lexington to go with it, by persuading 40,000 Bostonians that he had discovered the secret of making easy money.
		Stories about Ponzi and his financial wizardry were newspaper headlines during the summer of 1920.
		Ponzi went to jail, tried another quick-money scheme in Florida, and went to jail again.
	www.lit-trail.org /bostoninnovation/ponzi.htm (197 words)

	Issue Brief: The Luckiest Ponzi Scheme
		hen Charles Ponzi was defrauding investors in 1916 Boston, little did he know that within 20 years his particular dodge would be embraced as the official policy of the U.S. government.
		Ponzi convinced people to let him invest their money, but he never made any real investments.
		Also like Ponzi, Social Security eventually will be unable to recruit new “contributors” fast enough to pay out the benefits the government has promised.
	www.npri.org /issues/issues05/ib_032105.htm (735 words)

	Why is Social Security often called a Ponzi scheme? (Commentary)
		Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant, started the first such scheme in Boston in 1916.
		Ponzi was convicted of fraud and sent to prison for two years.
		Like Ponzi, Social Security will not be able to recruit new "investors" fast enough to continue paying promised benefits to previous investors.
	www.socialsecurity.org /daily/05-11-99.html (324 words)

	The Confidence Artists
		Most people have never heard of Ponzi, but the term "Ponzi Pyramid" is fairly well known, and even those who haven't heard of it have seen the modern version, the MAKE MONEY FAST schemes that were popular at one time on the Internet before they were replaced by better scams.
		Ponzi was also under investigation by the state of Massachusetts, and on the same day the POST article was printed, he met with state officials.
		Ponzi always saw some glory in the wild ride he had given Bostonians: "Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price.
	www.vectorsite.net /tzcon.html (6640 words)

	SitNews - Notorious Ponzi Schemes Are at the Top of the List
		The Ponzi name came from swindler Charles Ponzi who was born on March 3, 1882.
		Ponzi was only 5-feet-2 but wore expensive suits and swung a gold-headed cane as he strode the streets of Boston in 1920.
		Ponzi was so convincing that even police who examined his company decided to invest.
	www.sitnews.us /0305news/030405/030405_ponzi_schemes.html (509 words)

	Digital History (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-18)
		In September 1919, Ponzi was a 42 year old former vegetable dealer with just $150 to his name.
		Ponzi took in $15 million in eight months--and less than $200,000 was ever returned to investors.
		Ponzi symbolized the "get-rich-quick" mentality that infected the public during the 1920s.
	www.digitalhistory.uh.edu /database/article_display.cfm?HHID=459 (484 words)

	Ponzi State
		Thanks to Charles Ponzi, we have a name for it, and a model by which to understand it.
		Ponzi was a cut above the usual run of grifters, most of whom grab your money and run, never to be heard of again.
		A Ponzi scheme is pure re-distribution: money comes from later suckers to earlier suckers with the operator skimming as much as he can without queering the deal.
	www.geocities.com /rational_argumentator/ponzistate.html (1187 words)

	Ponzi Scheme
		The Ponzi scam is named after Charles Ponzi, a clerk in Boston who first orchestrated such a scheme in 1919.
		A Ponzi scheme is similar to a pyramid scheme in that both are based on using new investors' funds to pay the earlier backers.
		One difference between the two schemes is that the Ponzi mastermind gathers all relevant funds from new investors and then distributes them.
	www.investopedia.com /terms/p/ponzischeme.asp (327 words)

	OpinionEditorials.com — Charles Ponzi would have been proud - Sernoffsky
		In 1920, an Italian immigrant named Charles Ponzi went into business in Boston, setting up an investment business that promised outlandish returns.
		It was a basic pyramid scheme, but thanks to the man who ran it, it got a new name.
		It is now known to history as a “Ponzi scheme,” and there a lot of people who try to run one.
	www.opinioneditorials.com /guestcontributors/dsernoffsky_20050120.html (850 words)

	NPR : Charles Ponzi, the King of Financial Con Artists
		Charles Ponzi, the King of Financial Con Artists
		The Motley Fool, September 17, 2004 · Author Donald Dunn joins us for a conversation about Charles Ponzi, the con man behind the famous phrase "Ponzi scheme" who pulled off one of the most infamous financial swindles of all time.
		Dunn's book is entitled Ponzi: The Incredible True Story of the King of Financial Cons.
	www.npr.org /templates/story/story.php?storyId=3925042 (144 words)

	Ponzi Scheme invented first by Dr. Cook
		The word first appeared in usage in 1926, and honors, according to Webster's, American (Italian-born) swindler Charles A. Ponzi, died 1949.
		Of course, Ponzi might have been up to his tricks well before 1926 also.
		This could be a case of independent co-invention, like the discovery of calculus by Newton and Liebnitz.
	pearyhenson.org /dr_frederick_cook/fredponzi.html (281 words)

	[No title]
		The classic bubble has been repeated in various forms ever since, the chaos left in their wake toppled the government of Albania in 1997, and yet more recently, caused no end of trouble in South Africa.
		Pyramid Schemes (like the “Make Money Fast” epidemic) — Ponzi on a Xerox budget — are only a percentage of the many scams to proliferate on-line.
		The SEC, which, despite the similarity of its name to Ponzi’s Securities Exchange Company, is allegedly in the business of trying to keep things clean, set up a number of fake companies on-line, which made grandiose claims in order to lure gullible investors (who then get this punchline).
	www.sniggle.net /scams.php (1544 words)

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