Charles Ponzi, in 1920 in Boston, his supposed arbitrage scheme, was just a masquerade for paying off early investors with the deposits of later investors. The Ponzi Scheme is named for him. He claimed he would double investors’ money in 90 days through a bizarre plan to buy and resell international postal-reply coupons. Ponzi collected more than $8 million from about 30,000 investors in just seven months, before the scheme collapsed. He served five years in prison for using the mail to defraud.
