What is a Ponzi Scheme?

August 31, 2005 by Dane | 1 Comment
In Education

334_3492.  Originally uploaded by IanHaskins.

Two years ago today: What is a Ponzi?:

The term “Ponzi� is derived from Charles Ponzi (nee Ponsi), who was an Italian immigrant and ran his original scams in Montreal.

In 1919, he set himself up in an office on the second floor, of a downtown bank building in Boston. Ironically, he called his company the Securities and Exchange Company, and mailed prospectuses in December of 1919. He offered a 50% return on investments in 45 days and 100% in 90 days. By the end of June, 1920, he was supposedly receiving $500,000 a day and paying out $200,000 a day. Now this was in 1920 dollars - extrapolate this to the value of today’s dollar.

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