What is a Ponzi Scheme?
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.
Chuck on September 1st, 2005 7:46 am
So, based on the photo, can we say that the victim of a pyramid scheme has been “sphynxed”?
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