The 1920 Collapse of Charles Ponzi's Scheme (Episode 61)

In 1903, a young Italian man emigrated to America in hopes of finding work, love, and money. Over the following thirty years, Charles Ponzi would work dozens of jobs, form several companies, marry a very nice stenographer, and become an important (and notorious) member of the immigrant Italian-American communities he landed in. 

On this episode, we're taking a deep dive into Ponzi's background and the dozens of smaller scams that informed the financial scheme he's best known for - the wild success and inevitable collapse of his Securities and Exchange Company, a fraud which caused the collapse of six banks and removed 20 million dollars from the local economy. 

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Sources for this article include:

"Charles Ponzi - Biography (1882–1949)", Staff writer, Biography.Com, 2014

"In Ponzi We Trust", by M. Darby for Smithsonian Magazine, 1998

"The Rise of Mr. Ponzi", by C. Ponzi, 1935

"Charles Ponzi, The Financial Idiot Who Drove Boston Money Mad in 1920", Staff writer, New England Historical Society, 2021