What does ponzi mean

Question

What does ponzi mean

Answer 1

Ponzi scheme...was made famous by Charles Ponzi...kinda like a pyramid scheme.  Money from new investors pays earlier investor returns...but it can't be sustained.

Answer 2

Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882–January 18, 1949) was an Italian immigrant to the United States who became one of the greatest swindlers in American history. His aliases include Charles Ponei, Charles P. Bianchi, Carl and Carlo. Although many people have never heard of Ponzi himself, the term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of a system of fraudulent "make money fast" schemes promoted through the Internet and elsewhere to this day.

Answer 3

is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns

Answer 4

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns ("profits") to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi.

Answer 5

It's named after Carlo Ponzi (known in the US as Charles Ponzi), who pioneered this fraud back in the 1920s.  His story is actually very interesting.

At this time there was an international contract to allow national post offices to trade postage coupons.  If you wanted to send a letter overseas, you could buy a coupon at the post office that the other person could use to mail a return letter.  These coupons were worth more in some countries than others, so Ponzi formed a corporation to collect them in countries where they were cheap and sell them in countries where they were worth more.

He offered investors a promise to double their money in 45 days.  This was unheard of, so a lot of people wanted to invest money.  He paid off early investors with money he got from later investors, and of course the early investors would turn around and put the money right back into the scheme.  At the height of it, people were mortgaging their houses to send him the money.  He became one of the richest men in the country, even though his company never actually made a profit.

Eventually his scheme collapsed.  Most of the investors lost all their money.

To this day a scheme like that, paying off early investors with the money from later investors, building up a pyramid of investment, is called a Ponzi Scheme.  The Social Security system is sometimes called a Ponzi Scheme.