The Man Every Ponzi Scheme Is Named After

Every Ponzi scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, who paid Boston lenders 50% in 45 days while, the U.S. Supreme Court later found, he made no investments of any kind. This case file rebuilds his promissory note from the court record and works out the one line of arithmetic that exposed it. Rolled over for a year, his promise comes to 2,463%. Then it hands you the same calculation to run on any pitch you get, with the SEC's red flags. 0:00 Boston lines up for Ponzi 0:27 Why it worked 1:35 Exhibit A: The note they were given 2:16 Exhibit B: The coupon story 2:59 Exhibit C: How the money actually moved 4:10 Exhibit D: The collapse 6:13 The sum none of them ran 7:41 The verdict 7:53 Your own file Cunningham v. Brown, 265 U.S. 1 (1924), U.S. Supreme Court: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremeco... Ponzi v. Fessenden, 258 U.S. 254 (1922), U.S. Supreme Court: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremeco... In 2025 dollars by CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0) annual averages, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved 2026-09-30. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. Stock market return after inflation: Damodaran, A., Historical Returns on Stocks, Bonds and Bills, NYU Stern; deflated using CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ponzi scheme red flags and quote: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov: https://www.investor.gov/protect-your... Portrait of Charles Ponzi: Bain News Service. Library of Congress, LCCN 2014711137 Police photograph of Charles Ponzi, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons "Don't Be Ponzied": Washington Mutual Savings Bank advertisement, Seattle, September 25, 1920. Seattle Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons Film: Boston and Vicinity (Ford Motor Company, 1920), U.S. National Archives 200-FC-420 Music: written as code and played on sampled instruments: Salamander Grand Piano V3 by Alexander Holm (https://archive.org/details/Salamande..., licensed CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Meatbass by Karoryfer Samples (CC0); VS Chamber Orchestra 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios (CC0). #PonziScheme #CharlesPonzi #Scam