We all know by now what a Ponzi scheme is. Some sharp hedge fund manager or other investment guru sells fund shares, usually to close friends and relatives, and friends and acquaintances of each, promising a higher rate of return than could reasonably be earned in a legitimate investment. Typically, the fund doesn’t generate earnings with which to pay the promised interest to the investors. ...
The simple Ponzi scheme, as drawn up by Charles Ponzi himself in the early 1900’s, involved one schemer recruiting suckers one by one. While this is effective, it is not nearly as efficient in an “earnings by the hour” analysis. To increase the scam’s efficiency, it requires big suckers, not little ones. Bernie Madoff wanted to earn the big bucks. In order to do that, Madoff knew he would have to ...
In a previous blog (Bernie Madoff: A Modern Day Ponzi), I discussed Bernie Madoff’s modern day Ponzi scheme. I would now like to look at the man who started this elaborate fraud system. The scheme got its name from Charles Ponzi, born in Italy in 1882. Ponzi immigrated illegally to Boston when he was 21. He arrived in the United States virtually broke having gambled most of his savings during the ...
The biggest financial fraud in American history was pulled off by a New York financier by the name of Bernie Madoff. Madoff (pronounced “made off”) made off with more than $50 billion of his clients’ money (for some, their life savings) by promising his clients higher returns on their investments than they could expect elsewhere. And he delivered on this promises with sixteen percent returns in ...