Fraud schemes are probably as old as mankind, with the first recorded occurrence in Ancient Greece, where two merchants tried to defraud insurers by sinking their ships. On the other hand, one of the most popular and sometimes difficult to notice types that we still see in the world is the pyramid scheme named after the Italian immigrant to the United States Charles Ponzi. It relies on the constant flow of new money into the system and people’s faith in the schemer.
“Even if they with it [krāpniecības shēmu] never earned anything, it was a low price. Without malice I had given them the best show that had ever been staged in their territory since the first settlers came ashore! Watching me do it was worth 15 million dollars,” one of the most famous fraudsters in the history of modern finance, Charles Ponzi, said about his scheme in his last interview with an American journalist at the end of his life.
Play all the money
Charles Ponzi, real name Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, was born in Italy, Parma, in 1882. His family was wealthy and of good pedigree, but as the times changed, their economic power had waned. However, as Ponzi himself told the media in the first half of the 20th century, the family was not completely poor.
“The family lived a fairly comfortable but not rich life, they were richer in their name than in their savings,” writes Mitchell Zukoff, author of Ponzi’s Scheme, about the Carlo family.
Young Carlo worked as a postman, but either the family name or his own scrupulous nature allowed him to enter the University of Rome La Sapienza, whose history can be traced back to the beginning of the 14th century. True, studies and a peaceful life did not appeal to Carlo, and he, following the friends of the richest families, spent his study years, squandering all available money, part of which was the inheritance left after his father’s death, which was supposed to support the young man for all four years of study, in drinks and entertainment.
His father’s brother, who was entrusted with looking after the young man, tried to persuade him to look for work, but Carlo, having spent time with the scions of the wealthiest Italian families, considered himself a gentleman who was not suited to low-paid jobs, and, as Zukoff writes, there could be no physical work at all. speeches.
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2024-03-16 21:30:59
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