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Charles Ponzi
Sign in to saveAlso known as Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, Carlo Ponzi, Ponzi
Italian businessman and con artist (1882–1949)
OverviewAI-generated
Charles Ponzi, born Carlo Ponzi in Lugo on 3 March 1882, was a criminal, banker, autobiographer, and con artist who held citizenship of the United States, Italy, and the Kingdom of Italy. He was educated at Sapienza University of Rome, worked in investment, fraud, and property crime, and was convicted of larceny.
He died of a stroke in Rio de Janeiro on 18 January 1949 and was buried there.
Synthesized by Vinony from 22 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 1
Top works
- There Are Always Flowers for Those Who Wants to See Them
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- Born
- Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi , ( 1882-03-03 ) 3 March 1882, Lugo, Emilia-Romagna , Kingdom of Italy
- Died
- 18 January 1949 (1949-01-18) (aged 66), Rio de Janeiro , Federal District , Brazil
- Other names
- Carlo Charles P. Bianchi Charles Ponci
- Occupations
- Financier , confidence trickster
- Known for
- Ponzi scheme
- Spouse
- Rose Gnecco ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1918 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1937 )
- Motive
- Financial gain
- Criminal charge
- Forgery (Canada), mail fraud (U.S. federal), larceny (state)
- Penalty
- 3 years in Canada 1908–1911; 5 years U.S. federal (served 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 years before facing state charge) 1920–1922; 9 years state 1927–1934; deportation in 1934
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Charles
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Italy
- Place of birth
- Lugo
- Place of death
- Rio de Janeiro
- Occupation
- autobiographer
- Educated at
- Sapienza University of Rome
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- property crime
- Image
- Ponzi1920.jpg
- Convicted of
- larceny
Show 8 more facts
- Commons category
- Charles Ponzi
- date of birth
- 1882-01-01
- date of death
- 1949-01-01
- name in native language
- Carlo Ponzi
- place of burial
- Rio de Janeiro
- cause of death
- stroke
- manner of death
- natural causes
- birth name
- Carlo Ponzi
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Charles Ponzi (/ˈpɒnzi/; Italian: [ˈpontsi]; born Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi; 3 March 1882 – 18 January 1949) was an Italian charlatan and con artist who operated in the United States and Canada. His aliases included Charles Ponci, Carlo, Benny Broncko and Charles P. Bianchi.
Born in Lugo, 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 postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the U.S. as a form of arbitrage. In reality, Ponzi was paying earlier investors using the investments of later investors. While this type of fraudulent investment scheme was not invented by Ponzi, it became so identified with him that it now is referred to as a "Ponzi scheme". His scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed, costing his "investors" $20 million (equivalent to $237 million in 2024).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Charles Ponzi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.