You Can't Cheat an Honest Man - Unknown.pdf

(686 KB) Pobierz
Y
OU
C
AN
’
T
C
HEAT
AN
H
ONEST
M
AN
How Ponzi Schemes
and Pyramid Frauds
Work ...and Why
They’re More Common
Than Ever
James Walsh
S
ILVER
L
AKE
P
UBLISHING
L
OS
A
NGELES
, CA A
BERDEEN
, WA
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work…and Why They’re
More Common Than Ever
First edition, second printing 2003
Copyright © 2003 Silver Lake Publishing
Silver Lake Publishing
111 East Wishkah Street
Aberdeen, WA 98520
.
Box 29460
Los Angeles, California 90029
For a list of other publications or for more information from Silver Lake Publishing,
please call 1.360.532.5758.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transcribed in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of Silver
Lake Publishing.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: Pending
James Walsh
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work…and Why They’re More Common
Than Ever
Includes index.
Pages: 354
ISBN: 1-56343-169-6
Printed in the United States of America.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Some Background to the Current Situation ...1
Part One: How the Schemes Work
Chapter 1: The Mechanics Are Simple Enough ...19
Chapter 2: Location, Location, Location...Then the Money’s Gone ...29
Chapter 3: A Better Mousetrap Makes a Good Scam ...39
Chapter 4: Paying First Class, Traveling Steerage ...49
Chapter 5: 1040-Ponzi ...61
Chapter 6: Sure-thing Investments and Sweetheart Loans ...71
Chapter 7: Precious Metals, Currency and Commodities ...87
Chapter 8: Affinity Scams ...101
Part Two: Why the Schemes Work
Chapter 9: Trust ...117
Chapter 10: Greed ...131
Chapter 11: Family Ties ...141
Chapter 12: Secrecy and Privacy ...155
Chapter 13: Loneliness, Fear and Desperation ...167
Part Three: Contemporary Variations
Chapter 14: Multi-level Marketing ...183
Chapter 15: Faith, Religion and New Age Gurus ...203
Chapter 16: Charities and Not-for-Profit Organizations ...217
Chapter 17: www.ponzischeme.com ...231
Part Four: What to Do if You’ve Been Scammed
Chapter 18: Make Friends with the Regulators ...243
Chapter 19: Go After the People Who Got Money Out ...257
Chapter 20: Go After the Lawyers and Accountants ...273
Chapter 21: Go After Banks and Financiers ...287
Chapter 22: Fight Like Hell in Bankruptcy Court ...305
Conclusion
The Mother of All Ponzi Schemes ...319
Index ...331
Introduction: Some Background to the Current Situation
INTRODUCTION
Introduction:
Some Background to the Current Situation
Ponzi schemes have a strong—almost addictive—grasp on the people
who perpetrate them and the people who invest in them. Why? Con-
sider the original scheme.
Carlo Ponzi was a loser. He knew this. Everyone who knew him knew
this. But he was desperate to be something more.
Floating from job to job in the hard-scrabble Boston of the early 1920s,
the formal little man (he was 5’2" and irregularly employed but el-
egantly dressed) was, in one sense, loosely moored to reality. He would
stay up late nights dreaming up ways to get rich.
Ponzi had been born in Italy but arrived in New York in 1893 at the
age of 15. He immediately set to the task of finding a fast way to make
a lot of money. His impatience lead him into the most basic kind of
swindles—and an itinerant lifestyle. He served short stretches of time
in prison in both Canada (for mail fraud and passing bad checks) and
Atlanta (for an illegal immigration scheme). He ended up moving to
Boston in 1919.
Boston has always been a particularly tough place to be poor. Frus-
trated by the luxury he saw being casually enjoyed by the local swells,
Ponzi kept dreaming of ways to take his piece. And he wrote letters
home to various members of his extended family. Living in the after-
math of World War I, they were anxious for their traveling son to
strike it rich in the New World.
His letters home provided Ponzi with the origin of what he would
later—famously—call his “Great Idea.” Although Ponzi himself prob-
ably couldn’t describe it, the scheme was essentially a crude form of
currency exchange speculation.
1

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin