The Ponzi Scheme: Greatest Crimes?

1653 Words4 Pages

There are many crimes in America that people would consider to be major crimes. Some may say murder rape or child abuse but I think Ponzi schemes are the greatest crimes that people commit. A Ponzi scheme uses "investor money to find a productive business venture the con orders channels the proceeds from new investors to pay interest to only earlier ones"( Basu, 2014 pg.1). Ponzi schemes can come in many different shapes and sizes. Those types of disguises makes scheme hard to detect and make it hard for people to take legal actions against a company.
The Ponzi scheme was first done by Carlo "Charles" Ponzi in New England in 1920. Carlo Charles Ponzi was born on March 3, 1882 in Lugo Italy. He came to Boston in the late 1903. Charles Ponzi …show more content…

These scams do not look like Ponzi scheme. Hidden scheme are also called pyramid scheme. These schemes are legal and “they often arise when business manipulates their operations to stay afloat when times are tough” (Basu, 2014 p.3). Even though this is a Ponzi they are hard to detect because they are “intertwined with perfectly legitimate activities” (Basu, 2014 p.3). Some “companies and governments indulge from time to time in what is called juggling” (Basu, 2014 p.3). This happen when a company does not what to liquidate a portion of an asset. This can cost the company to pay also more many back to the …show more content…

Middle use the money he was stealing for his personal luxurious lifestyle and also for his family and friends. Invest investigators describe Madoff con game like an inside man. In order to keep his con up he had to "work with others who would help him carry out his complex criminal activity and who he could trust not to betray him"(Lewis, 2013 p.289). He works his family members like his brother Peter who later committed suicide during the trial.
In May 2002 the SIPC trustee filed a 255.3 million lawsuit against the Madoff family. Madoff company BLMIS ended on December 11 2008 when he was arrested for stealing his customer’s money. For more than 50 years Madoff s company money from people and on June 29th 2009 he pleaded guilty "to 11 counts Complaint and was sentenced as a hundred fifty years in prison"(Lewis, 2013

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