Charles Ponzi was an Italian swindler who committed financial crimes in the United States and Canada in the early decades of the 20th century. He created the Ponzi Scheme which is an illegal investment scheme where investors are paid from other investors’ money and not from sales profits.
He was born in 1882 in Italy. He enrolled at a university in Rome but never attended classes. He was having fun unabashedly.
He immigrated to the USA in search of better luck. So in 1903 he was found penniless in Boston. But he had hope, faith and self-confidence. He started working in humble jobs.
In 1907 he went to Montreal, Canada to work at Zarossi Bank. When the bank went bankrupt he became unemployed. He went to prison for three years after forging a check.
When he was released, he was deported to the United States and involved in smuggling of Italian immigrants. For this he was imprisoned for two years.
When he was released he went to Boston and got married there. He started working again in humble jobs.
Then he managed to buy and sell stamps, earning a lot of money.
As a restless spirit, he was not satisfied and so he set up the Securities Exchange Company to carry out his scams, as explained at the beginning of the article.
He was revealed by The Boston Post. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. When he was released he went to live in Italy. Eventually he divorced his wife and tried unsuccessfully to repeat his crimes there as well.
He then went to Brazil to work as a translator.
He died in 1949 in Rio de Janeiro.
[Source: http://www.sansimera.gr]
