Rent Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend

Synopsis

The name Ponzi will forever be associated with the get-rich-quick scheme that swindled thousands of Americans out of their savings in Boston back in 1920. Italian immigrant Charles Ponzi figured out that people would give him large sums of cash if he promised that, after a time, their money would grow and they would get a large return. His simple swindle was appealing, yet it had a flaw: it depended on a delayed payout, and on new investors paying off older ones. But Ponzi acquired millions of dollars in a brief period of time, and he lived high on the hog. Mitchell Zuckoff captures the spirit of the Gilded Age, and tells how this bold and entrepreneurial con man saw his opportunity in the American willingness to be conned. In the end, he was, some say, a victim of his own wide-eyed optimism. Though he met an ignominious end, Ponzi’s name lives on in the answers to Jeopardy-like games, and variations of the scam that bears his name still exist to trap the unwary.

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