Chapter 823： The route of the Ponzi scheme

Trying hard to pull Yangcheng and David Ellison into the game, this is exactly the same as Madoff’s back then. Even his approach is completely based on the template of the Ponzi scheme, which fits all the common features of this scam, no no No, to be precise, Sandy Bogle inherited Madoff's transformational version, not Pounds's original version.

The person who "invented" the Ponzi scheme and promoted it to the world was called Charles Ponzi. He was an Italian who immigrated to the United States in 1903 and did various jobs in the United States, including painters, the lowest level at the time. For his type of work, he only wanted to make a fortune. He had been jailed in Canada for the crime of forgery for this reason, and went to jail in Atlanta, USA for smuggling personally.

After more than ten years of American dreams, Ponzi discovered that the fastest way to make money is finance. So, since 1919, Ponzi concealed his dark history and came to Boston, designed an investment plan to sell to the American public.

This investment plan is very simple to say, it is to invest in one thing, and then get a high return.

However, Pounds deliberately made this plan very complicated, so that ordinary people could not understand it at all. In 1919, just after the end of the First World War, the world economic system was in chaos. Pounds used this chaos. He declared, You can make money by buying a certain postal bill in Europe and selling it to the United States. Due to factors such as zheng policies and exchange rates between countries, it is indeed difficult for ordinary people to figure out many economic behaviors.

Moreover, on the one hand, Ponzi is playing mystery in finance, on the other hand, he set up huge bait. He claimed that all investments can get a 50% return within 45 days. This is indeed a very bold rate of return. Only the "innocent" people of that era were easily fooled.

Not only that, in order to prove his authenticity, he also gave people "seeing is believing" evidence: the first batch of "investors" did get the return promised by Pounds within the specified time, so there was something behind. A large number of "investors" followed up.

In a year or so, almost 40,000 Boston citizens, like fools, became investors in the Ponzi money-making plan, and most of them were poor people with dreams of getting rich. At that time, Ponzi received about 15 million US dollars in total. Small investments, on average, each person "invests" several hundred dollars.

At that time, Ponzi was even once called by some ignorant Americans as one of the three greatest Italians with the same name as Columbus and Marconi (the inventor of the radio), because he "discovered money" like Columbus discovered the New World. .

After that, Ponzi lived in a 20-room villa, bought more than 100 expensive suits, accompanied by special leather shoes, owned dozens of gold-encrusted walking sticks, and bought countless expensive jewelry for his wife. , Even his pipe is studded with diamonds.

When a financial expert exposed Pound's investment fraud, Pound also published an article in the newspaper, righteously rebutting the financial expert, saying that the financial expert does not understand anything, and he has portrayed his image extremely.

Until 1920, Ponzi went bankrupt. The money he received, according to his promise, could buy hundreds of millions of European postal bills. In fact, he only bought two.

Since then, "Ponzi scam" has become a term, and his name has been "extended" forever in an alternative way.

Later, Ponzi was sentenced to 5 years in prison. After he was released from prison, he did several similar activities and went to a longer prison.

Deported back to Italy in 1934, he tried to deceive Mussolini's bigger liar, but he did not succeed. In 1949, Ponzi died in a charity hall in Brazil. When he died, this "Ponzi scheme" The inventor is penniless.

Different from Ponzi’s targeting of the poor, Madoff’s targeting is defined as the middle class and the rich.

Palm Beach Country Club was established in the 1950s. This is a high-end Jewish club with only 300 members. To apply to join it, you must not only be rich enough, the membership fee alone was as high as $300,000 in that era, but also must be of high moral character. People, the annual charitable donation record is not less than 300,000 US dollars.

Madoff easily entered the elite country club and attracted many wealthy Jewish members.

Madoff is very good at trying to figure out the psychology of investors. He deliberately creates a kind of exclusive atmosphere and implements a policy of "no entry". Only investors who have been invited can become customers of the company. This means that they become customers of Madoff. It's a bit like joining a club with a high threshold. You can't join a club with money and no introduction.

This strategy is undoubtedly very successful. In the eyes of many people, investing money in Madoff has become a status symbol.

Madoff never explains investment strategies, and if you ask too much, he will refuse to accept your investment.

At the club’s golf courses and cocktail parties, people mention Madoff’s name from time to time.

Some Jewish elderly people call Madoff a "Jewish bond", which can give an investment return of 8% to 12%, and it is so stable every year. Regardless of the financial market situation, whether it goes up or down, investors can always get the answer. Some rewards, Madoff once boasted: "I make money in a rising market, and I also make money in a falling market. Only a market that lacks volatility will leave me at a loss."

His target is not just wealthy strangers, but old friends with friendship are still within the scope of his fraud. A 95-year-old club member and costume tycoon Carl Shapiro is one of the biggest victims of the Madoff scam. He has known Madoff for nearly 50 years and once invited Madoff to attend his 95th birthday party, travel with him, and even take his great-grandson to play.

Shapiro’s charity fund invested a total of US$145 million in Madoff’s fund.

In addition, Shapiro and his family handed over another 400 million US dollars to Madoff.

As the number of customers continues to increase, the minimum investment required by Madoff has also increased, from the initial US$1 million to US$5 million and then to US$10 million. At least 1/3 of club members have invested in Madoff’s fund.

Due to stable returns, Madoff’s reputation has become more and more popular. Members are proud of having Madoff investment accounts. It was not until the financial crisis that he could no longer swindle more money and the game ended.

Now Sandy takes exactly the same route as Madoff, and he has gained a reputation. Then join the super-high-end people like Yang Cheng and David Ellison. As long as they nod their heads, another money game will start.

David Ellison looked at Sandy with lingering fear and asked, "Are you not afraid that we will turn around and expose your scam?"

Yang Cheng also had the same question in his heart, but when he saw Sandy’s vowed expression, he understood that Sandy was not afraid of being exposed, because no one would believe it. People are so weird. No one believes when they tell the truth. It's a lie but countless people pursue it.

Sure enough, Sandy said indifferently, "You can try to see if anyone believes that those stupid people will only think that you are jealous and hateful, and even believe that you are preventing them from making money. In a dilemma, it would be better to be a chess player with me and play these idiots between the palms. Wouldn't it be more fun?"

When he said this, Sandy scanned the audience. Even though everyone was on the same level, he gave people a sense that he was on the top of the mountain and everyone else was an ant.

A chill is bred from the soles of the feet. This person has thoroughly studied the ugly side of human nature. Looking at his self-confidence, he must have figured out how to deal with the coming of the financial crisis, right? To be honest, ordinary financial crises can't shake tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of plates. As long as the simultaneous run of the storm does not exceed 5 billion, Madoff had a way to deal with it. Unfortunately, the number of runs far exceeds 5 billion. , Too much to the point that his lid can't cover it at all, otherwise, with Madoff's strong psychology, how could he willingly expose his biggest secret?

And if it weren't for the once-in-a-hundred-year financial tsunami in 2008, how could there be a one-time run of tens of billions of cash?

Therefore, Sandy chose to plant a shocking scam at this time. This is the perfect time. At this time, it has been 7 years since the financial crisis. Although the pain period is still continuing, it is enough for people to lick their wounds and the society recovers. In the thriving situation, money is still the mainstream topic of this society, and a large number of wealthy people with idle funds have begun to follow the old path before the financial crisis, looking for opportunities to make them rich although not One can predict when the next financial crisis will come, but it is unlikely to happen in the past 10 years. Unless there is a large-scale global armed conflict, then again, there is a real war, and Sandy will run away. Will it favor those poor investors? Go dreaming!

Yang Cheng admitted that while the heart was trembling, there was a small flame of greed bursting out of his heart, nonsense, this great opportunity to make money left everyone's heart moving.

As if seeing Yang Cheng's intentions hidden under his eyes, Sandy wiped his mouth with a very crude napkin, threw it on the ground, lowered his throat again, and said in that extremely seductive voice, "Let's say it," I just want to borrow the reputation of the two, you have also seen, tonight are either actors or sports stars. Their appeal is okay among ordinary people, but they are far less influential among the rich.

I can make a promise to both of you for a one-year period of 100 million US dollars. After maturity, I will return the two with a principal of 125 million US dollars and a fixed rate of return of 25%. Who else can give it out in the world? The old stock **** has been busy all his life, but it is only an average annualized rate of return of 18%.

Just borrowing your name will make 25 million US dollars in vain for a year. Where can I find this good thing?

We can write it into the contract, and then you can take this contract to the Netherlands or Italy to find a well-known shipyard to build a yacht. "

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