Charles Ponzi - The Greatest Con Man Ever

"Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims!" Charles Ponzi a.k.a Charles Bianchi

Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi was born in Lugo, Italy in 1882, arrived in America on November 15, 1903 with $2.50 in his pocket, tried to become a millionaire. "I landed in this country with $2.50 in cash and $1 million in hopes, and those hopes never left me." Worked as a dishwasher at first, the hardship did not hold him up to become a millionaire. That is the power of being an immigrant and minority i said. Through the hard time he had to face including being a prisoner, he was such an arrogant and determine man that never giving up for his dream. After he was released from prison, the new Ponzi had just begin. Out of the blue, he realized and created one of the investment programs with 400% returns in a single product although it was his first time to see the product which was International reply coupon (IRC).

Soon after a while he started the scheme, he owned a company called Old Colony Foreign Exchange Company to promote the scheme. Now he obtained the money to pay several agents with generous commissions for every dollar they brought in. Februari 1920, the investor´s deposit was $5000 (approximately $54,000 in 2008). It began to expand and by March, total deposit were $30,000 ($328,000 in 2008). Two month after, he collected $420,000 ($4.59 millions in 2008). That only takes few month to become a millionaire.



Most of the rich-fast-scheme in the world are (yet undiscovered) based on this scheme. Thanks to him, many millionaires were born even though it is illegal. He was a brilliant man as he created another himself, Bernard Madoff (former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange) to be nominated as largest financial investor fraud,. It does not care whether you are blue or white collar, rich or poor, everyone is a potential investor.