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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:51 am
Time: 3:51 am
Results for ponzi schemes
2 results foundAuthor: Chilton, Bart Title: Ponzimonium: How Scam Artists are Ripping Off America Summary: In December of 2008, the world learned that legendary investment guru Bernard Madoff made-off with an estimated $50 billion in what was called the Mother of all Ponzi Schemes. Ponzi schemes, named after Charles Ponzi, are scams in which early investors are given sup-posed returns paid through funds provided by later investors. Typically, an investment is made and then some profits are paid out, prompting the investor to assume that his or her money has increased in value. In actuality, the perpetrators of these schemesPonzi, Madoff, or the others described in this booktake the money for themselves. The legal term for this kind of taking is misappropriation. As new investors enter the fraud, supposed returns are offered continually to initial investors, and many times are accompanied by fake account statements. This continues until new money stops flowing in and the investors want their money back. During the 2008 economic downturn, people needed their money back at the same time that there were no new investors. Many house of cards scams have fallen and the perpetrators of the swindles have been caught. Charles Ponzi ran these types of scams in the U.S. until he was deported to Italy, his birth-place, in 1934 as an undesirable alien. Many think that one would have to be foolish to invest in such a scam, but Madoff and other such folks are good at their craft. They often put on a great false front, even fooling the master of illusion, movie director Steven Spielberg. But Spielberg wasn't alone. Even banks we assume would undertake due diligence before funds were invested got caught in Madoff's web. Investors included Austrian, British, Dutch, Swiss, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish banks. Larry King and the owner of the New York Mets, Fred Wilpon, were duped, as was former LA Dodgers pitcher, Sandy Koufax. Actors Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, John Malkovich, and Zsa Zsa Gabor, as well as New York University and New York Law School, a union's health care fund, several trusts, endowments, and non-profits such as the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity made the widely publicized victims list. Even the International Olympic Committee wasn't immune from the Madoff scam. While this may have been the largest swindle ever, scores and scores of Ponzis of all sizes and values continue to be unearthed. There have never been more of these scams, and they are occurring all over the world. That's why this publication is called Ponzimonium. The cases described here are just as damaging to the victims as the Madoff scam, and many of them are every bit as complicated and seemingly authentic. Meanwhile, Madoff traded his Manhattan penthouse for a jail cell for the next 150 years, but the damage he did to those he took advantage of cannot be repaired. Their story and others provide an instructive window into how these schemes operate and how to avoid becoming a Ponzi scheme victim. Details: Washington, DC: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 2011. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 12, 2014 at: http://bookstore.gpo.gov/sites/default/files/files/Ebooks/Ponzimonium_PDF.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://bookstore.gpo.gov/sites/default/files/files/Ebooks/Ponzimonium_PDF.pdf Shelf Number: 131862 Keywords: Financial CrimesFraudPonzi SchemesScams |
Author: Cortes, Darwin Title: Economic Shocks and Crime: Evidence from the Crash of Ponzi Schemes Summary: In November 2008, Colombian authorities dismantled a network of Ponzi schemes, making hundreds of thousands of investors lose tens of millions of dollars throughout the country. Using original data on the geographical incidence of the Ponzi schemes, this paper estimates the impact of their break down on crime. We find that the crash of Ponzi schemes differentially exacerbated crime in affected districts. Confirming the intuition of the standard economic model of crime, this effect is only present in places with relatively weak judicial and law enforcement institutions, and with little access to consumption smoothing mechanisms such as microcredit. In addition, we show that, with the exception of economically-motivated felonies such as robbery, violent crime is not affected by the negative shock. Details: Caracas, Venezuela: CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), 2016. Source: Internet Resource: Working papers No. 2016/01: Accessed September 17, 2016 at: http://repository.urosario.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10336/11880/dt185.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Colombia URL: http://repository.urosario.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10336/11880/dt185.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 147940 Keywords: Economics of CrimeFinancial CrimesPonzi SchemesProperty Crime |