Charles Ponzi

Also known as Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, Carlo Ponzi, Ponzi

Italian businessman and con artist (1882–1949)

Person · Open Library

Works: 1

Top works

There Are Always Flowers for Those Who Wants to See Them

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Music · MusicBrainz

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 21
Total plays: 41

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Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python
· 2020 · cited 34,759x
The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research
· 1989 · cited 28,523x
Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning
· 2015 · cited 22,981x
Array programming with NumPy
· 2020 · cited 22,193x
Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2
· 2019 · cited 20,056x

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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

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Wikidata facts

Image: Ponzi1920.jpg

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Commons category: Charles Ponzi
date of birth: 1882-01-01
date of death: 1949-01-01
name in native language: Carlo Ponzi
birth name: Carlo Ponzi

Sources (2)

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~29 min read

Article

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).