Hello IRRC staff,
On this day in 1882, notorious conman Charles Ponzi was born in Lugo, Italy. He arrived in Boston in 1903 with only $2.50 to his name. Over the next twenty years, he amassed a fortune of millions of dollars by purchasing postal reply coupons in foreign countries and selling them in the United States at a huge profit margin. At the heigh of his scheme, Ponzi was rumored to be making upwards of $200,000 per day (roughly $3 million in today's money). Ponzi was arrested in August of 1920 and was convicted of 86 counts of mail fraud. It is estimated that Ponzi's eponymous scheme swindled investors out of some $20 million dollars, making it one of the most infamous financial schemes in American history 💰💲
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