Charles Ponzi
Charles Ponzi, (born\xa0Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi; March 3, 1882 \u2013 January 18, 1949), was an\xa0Italian\xa0swindler and\xa0con artist\xa0in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases include\xa0Charles Ponci,\xa0Carlo, and\xa0Charles P. Bianchi.[1]\xa0Born and raised in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money-making scheme. He promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted\xa0postal reply coupons\xa0in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of\xa0arbitrage.[2][3]\xa0In reality, Ponzi was paying earlier investors using the investments of later investors. While this type of fraudlent investment scheme was not originally invented by Ponzi, it became so identified with him that it now is referred to as a\xa0Ponzi scheme. His scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed, costing his "investors" $20 million.