Charles Ponzi
Whether or not you can pin down exactly what it means, you’ve probably heard the term “Ponzi scheme”. This refers to one of the most famous con men in Western history. Born in Lugo, Italy, on March 3, 1882, Charles Ponzi came along more than a quarter of a century after the “confidence man” term had been coined, but he certainly made it his own.
Ponzi worked for the postal service in Italy before spending four years at the University of Rome La Sapienza. He treated this time as a holiday and left with neither a degree nor any money. At this point, Ponzi decided that his best chance of making his fortune would be in America, the land of opportunity. From the start, however, Ponzi was never one to be weighed down by the letter of the law, or a strict moral code.
