Ponzi scheme: Revealing the legendary life of Charles Ponzi, the founder of the world's largest financial scheme.

The story took place in America on 1920. At that time, the first world war had just ended and the world was returning to peace, so people began to look at money.

Media and newspapers have published some articles about how entrepreneurs start businesses and get rich overnight. At that time, an American's thinking will change greatly. Money is happiness, money is power, and money can have everything.

At this moment, our hero appeared, and he was Charles Ponzi. He was born in a small Italian town. 1902, he bought a boat ticket to the United States, took 200 yuan cash and went to the United States with the mission of rejuvenating his family.

When disembarking, only 2.5 yuan was left, and the rest of the money was lost at the gambling table in the cabin. In this way, he came to the United States, always remembering his mother's words: all people who go to the United States have become rich, and I think your ability can be better.

At that time, he was only 2 1 year-old, and just came to the United States alone, so it was inevitable that his journey was not smooth. In order to make a living, he changed jobs. He worked as a grocer, a roadside salesman, a dishwasher, a factory worker, ironing shirts, selling insurance, and a waiter in a restaurant.

Do you think this is his hard life? Soon, he was imprisoned for forging his signature on the check. Three years later, he just came out of prison, took a few breaths of fresh air, and was arrested and imprisoned again for human trafficking. Two years passed.

After he got out of prison, he went to Boston. At this time, God seems to take special care of this young man, where he met the beautiful girl Ross, who is the love of his life and also from Italy. I started my business at the age of 36. I want to give my beloved wife the moon in the sky, give my family a comfortable life and give them an account.

1920, Ponzi delivered a business plan to potential customers around the world, and a customer from Spain found a magical note in reply, named "international reply voucher". This voucher can be exchanged for an equivalent stamp at the post office, and the face value of the stamp is just enough to pay the postage required for Ponzi's next reply. It turns out that in those days, the sender would attach this receipt to the envelope for convenience or courtesy. What a strange financial instrument is this?

As an Italian immigrant, Ponzi knew the trend of international exchange rate after the war. For example, before the war, the Italian lira (Italian currency) was 5: 1 against the US dollar, and after the war it fell to 20: 1. Ponzi thought, if I bought a lot of vouchers in Italy and brought them back to the United States, wouldn't the profits make him rich?

After hitting a wall everywhere, I decided to register a company myself, and the name sounded very high-securities trading company. At the same time, he began to describe his plan to acquaintances around him. He wanted to build a financial empire, talked about the Rome Conference, talked about the change of foreign exchange rate, talked about the voucher can be exchanged at the universal post office, and his professional operation method can turn this voucher into real cash.

People are always numb to a pile of data and technical terms, but only interested in his last words, that is, no matter how much you invest, you can get 50% interest in 45 days and 100% interest in 90 days. At first, few people believed in him, only a few people held a try attitude, but after 45 days, he really gave all the cash with interest to investors. Faced with this result, more and more people began to believe in Ponzi scheme, and this snowball has been getting bigger and bigger.

So how did Ponzi do it? Of course, he didn't really buy vouchers as planned, not because he didn't want to, but because he hasn't found a suitable way to realize it. In order to maintain his promise to investors, he had to rob Peter to pay Paul, and used the money of later investors to pay the interest and principal of former investors, playing a game of empty gloves and white wolves.

He thinks that everything will be fine as long as the snowball gets bigger and bigger, and Ponzi's unique personality charm adds a lot to his success. His handsome appearance, warm and magnetic voice, elegant conversation and two dimples exposed by a smile doomed his leadership temperament.

The bigger the business, the thicker the funds. A few months later, he bought his own luxury car and a magnificent villa. In order to share this joy, Ponzi came to America with his mother in July. Seventeen years later, his mother and son met again. He cried like a child when he went to pick up his mother. My mother told him: I knew you would succeed.

On July 24th, 1920, an unusual text appeared in Washington post: "Charles Ponzi, as the owner of a securities trading company, lives at No.27 School Street. He promised that no matter how much investors invest, they can get 50% interest in 45 days and 100% interest in 90 days. "

Men and women crowded at the gate of his company, scrambling to find his investment. Ponzi earned 8.5 million yuan for himself and a lot of money for thousands of Americans in nine months, but the government did not find any illegal operation of Ponzi. This news aroused more people's interest, and Ponzi became a hot figure in the United States at that time. The business of securities trading companies is in full swing.

There is a long queue in the block in front of the company, and some people even regard Ponzi as a god. The so-called big trees attract the wind, and such incidents have attracted the attention of people from all walks of life. Countless people in financial circles don't want to know him, The Secret Behind. After a month's investigation by bankers, prosecutors and other financial people, the voucher plan was completely exposed.

On July 30th, 1920, the headline of Washington post was "Voucher Plan Exposed Completely". The postmaster general of new york said that vouchers from all over the world together could not be exchanged for Ponzi's wealth.

After a crushing defeat, on August 2, the Post officially announced that Ponzi was completely insolvent.

Ponzi didn't make too many excuses, but just stated to the media: Many people have committed crimes, and I am not the last one, nor the only one.

13 In August, Ponzi was formally arrested until he was released from prison, and his wife Ross insisted on visiting him every week.

The last thing he said to the media before he went to prison was:? All the honors in the world are fleeting.