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It was a time when anything seemed possible–instant wealth, glittering fame, fabulous luxury–and for a run of magical weeks in the spring and summer of 1920, Charles Ponzi made it all come true. Promising to double investors’ money in three months, the dapper, charming Ponzi raised the “rob Peter to pay Paul” scam to an art form. At the peak of his success, Ponzi was raking in more than $2 million a week at his office in downtown Boston. Then his house of cards came crashing down–thanks in large part to the relentless investigative reporting of Richard Grozier’s Boston Post. A classic American tale of immigrant life and the dream of success, Ponzi’s Scheme is the amazing story of the magnetic scoundrel who launched the most successful scheme of financial alchemy in modern history.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book poses two basic questions. Was Charles Ponzi an incurable romantic who dreamt of creating riches for the masses or was he a ruthless confidence trickster?
The author, Mitchell Zuckoff gives a very absorbing and well written account of Ponzi's Scheme which paints both sides of Ponzi's seemingly contradictory personality.
For the answer to the saint or sinner conundrum the reader has to wait until the very end of the book, which I will not reveal here for fear of spoiling the read.
What is reconfirmed once again is the gullibility of people when their commonsense is blinded by greed. It always has been the case and always will be.
The author, Mitchell Zuckoff gives a very absorbing and well written account of Ponzi's Scheme which paints both sides of Ponzi's seemingly contradictory personality.
For the answer to the saint or sinner conundrum the reader has to wait until the very end of the book, which I will not reveal here for fear of spoiling the read.
What is reconfirmed once again is the gullibility of people when their commonsense is blinded by greed. It always has been the case and always will be.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This was one book i found hard to put down. It's a very captive story that I think anyone who's interested in finance should read. Written like a novel and still the biography of selfproclamed a financial wizard, that in the end fell through. Ponzi was the inventor of something that still hits the papers almost every year.
Format:Hardcover
The story of Charles Ponzi is a legend in the United States and one that seemed to justify the claim that every citizen's dream can come true.
Well, the charming, smiling little rogue launched a scam using an international postage service, by gambling on huge variations in the currency market, and promising to double an investor's money His get rich quick plan led to big queues at his scruffy office as Boston's citizens knew a good thing when they saw it, and Ponzi, the virtually penniless immigrant, became a millionaire overnight.
Almost every day for months, there were queues of people clutching their life savings and throwing money into the get rich quick pot At one stage he was raking in two million dollars a week He and his wife Rose, the love of his life, moved into a mansion in the city's top area, he swanned around in a luxurious car driven by a chauffeur and he smiled and smiled, charming adoring crowds in his stylish Roaring Twenties natty suits.
The Cote d'Azur men's book club loved the book, and loved Charles Ponzi; his public appearances as a suave financier, the man who made the American Dream come true turned him into a sort of Pied Piper whistling money out of thin air.' He kept his promises to investors and when they redeemed his notes after 90 days they received 50 per cent interest.. Ponzi was, of course, playing the old conman's game, robbing Peter to pay Paul
Eventually the dozy State bureaucrats woke up but not until a campaign by the proprietor of the Boston Post, Edwin Grozier and later his son, Richard, began to make people suspicious. Fast talking Ponzi refuted all the allegations and the money still poured in, until the Post revealed his past and the fact that he had served two jail terms in Montreal for forgery and fraud. The game was almost up but it was not until the Bank Commissioner more or less froze the account that held over $l,500,000 of Ponzi's money, and made him bankrupt, that the ceiling fell in
The man who had once suffered the agony of donating large amounts of his skin to help a badly burned woman he did not even know, a man always willing to help and comfort those people who need his help, went to jail still claiming he was innocent, and ended being continually persecuted by the authorities
Hundreds of investors invaded his company offices when he was arrested, but, of course, there was not enough money to pay them. Squads of tough Boston policemen - many of them had been happy investors earlier - kept them at bay. Ironically, Ponzi had the money to pay out but he could not get his hands on it, thanks to the Bank Commissioner's action and the Attorney General's determination to get Ponzi.
In a final act of vengeance, a tearful Ponzi was deported. He never saw his beloved wife, Rose again and eventually ended his life in the charity ward of a hospital in Rio, leaving just ninety dollars. He was sixty fix years old, a legend, and his name still lives on through the world wide fame of the scam known as Ponzi's Scheme.
.
Well, the charming, smiling little rogue launched a scam using an international postage service, by gambling on huge variations in the currency market, and promising to double an investor's money His get rich quick plan led to big queues at his scruffy office as Boston's citizens knew a good thing when they saw it, and Ponzi, the virtually penniless immigrant, became a millionaire overnight.
Almost every day for months, there were queues of people clutching their life savings and throwing money into the get rich quick pot At one stage he was raking in two million dollars a week He and his wife Rose, the love of his life, moved into a mansion in the city's top area, he swanned around in a luxurious car driven by a chauffeur and he smiled and smiled, charming adoring crowds in his stylish Roaring Twenties natty suits.
The Cote d'Azur men's book club loved the book, and loved Charles Ponzi; his public appearances as a suave financier, the man who made the American Dream come true turned him into a sort of Pied Piper whistling money out of thin air.' He kept his promises to investors and when they redeemed his notes after 90 days they received 50 per cent interest.. Ponzi was, of course, playing the old conman's game, robbing Peter to pay Paul
Eventually the dozy State bureaucrats woke up but not until a campaign by the proprietor of the Boston Post, Edwin Grozier and later his son, Richard, began to make people suspicious. Fast talking Ponzi refuted all the allegations and the money still poured in, until the Post revealed his past and the fact that he had served two jail terms in Montreal for forgery and fraud. The game was almost up but it was not until the Bank Commissioner more or less froze the account that held over $l,500,000 of Ponzi's money, and made him bankrupt, that the ceiling fell in
The man who had once suffered the agony of donating large amounts of his skin to help a badly burned woman he did not even know, a man always willing to help and comfort those people who need his help, went to jail still claiming he was innocent, and ended being continually persecuted by the authorities
Hundreds of investors invaded his company offices when he was arrested, but, of course, there was not enough money to pay them. Squads of tough Boston policemen - many of them had been happy investors earlier - kept them at bay. Ironically, Ponzi had the money to pay out but he could not get his hands on it, thanks to the Bank Commissioner's action and the Attorney General's determination to get Ponzi.
In a final act of vengeance, a tearful Ponzi was deported. He never saw his beloved wife, Rose again and eventually ended his life in the charity ward of a hospital in Rio, leaving just ninety dollars. He was sixty fix years old, a legend, and his name still lives on through the world wide fame of the scam known as Ponzi's Scheme.
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