A Poor Smuggler
Once Ponzi was released, he was ready to return to the U.S. What should have been a straightforward task, however, was complicated when he found himself involved in another scheme. Ponzi became part of a group attempting to sneak illegal immigrants across the U.S./Canada border. He was caught and sent to serve two years in Atlanta Prison.
During his sentence, Ponzi helped a warden by translating letters that were being intercepted from an Italian mobster, but it was a fellow inmate who really caught Ponzi’s attention. Charles W. Morse engineered his own release from jail by eating flakes of soap in order to trick prison doctors into believing that he was unwell. Morse also worked on Wall Street and he became something of an inspiration to the down-at-luck Charles Ponzi.
