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A lookback to Pyramid Schemes

Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes

By Alex GhimirePublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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A lookback to Pyramid Schemes
Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash

Bernie Madoff managed the largest Ponzi scheme in history, with a debt of 6.5 billion debt - involving thousands of investors acquired in 2008. Thousands of victims lost money on secret accounts worth more than $ 20 million. Gerald Payne. Bernie Madoff has promised an unusual return by hiring new members to share their money with his profits. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 150 years in prison and his investors lost billions of dollars in the latest Ponzi scheme.

In January 1998, a judge ordered Fortuna to start paying his investors. The company has received punishment for its alleged fraud. In December 2016 Vemma Nutrition Company, an Arizona-based high-quality food company and multi-story marketing company accused of operating an illegal pyramid scheme reached a $ 238 million agreement with the US FTC banning corporate pyramid scheme practices, including focusing on non-profit financing. and unsubstantiated health claims.

His assertion that the system, which calls itself an online shopping mall, was actually a towering program that did not disclose where the money was stored for most consumers, and that it provided its affiliates with features that enabled them to deceive others. The Internet company Fortuna Alliance has promised monthly returns to investors up to $ 5,000, with more than 8,600 people buying from the program.

At the top, his plan seemed complicated, but the subtlety that eventually led to his discovery and conviction was no different. The Ponzi scheme is a form of financial fraud that attracts investors with the promise of high returns. It is named after Charles "Ponzi" of Italy, who became famous in the 1920s for claiming to double his customers' money in 90 days. He was not the first or the last to commit this type of fraud.

Ponzi told investors that he could take advantage of inflation by purchasing coupons that responded worldwide. He said he could buy them with vouchers at a discount and sell them for a certain price in the United States at a great profit.

The first plan of the pyramid was unveiled in 1919 by Charles Ponzi who invented a fraudulent scam that incorporated promise notes returned in 90 days and promised investors 50% interest on those who invested in them. Like an Italian immigrant named Charles "Ponzi" Dapper, who was a bully in the 1920s, the skyrocketing of the scam was so dramatic that his name was attached to the system he used, which was not just an ancient game of borrowing to pay Paul from Peter.

Ponzi himself was inspired by the remarkable success of William Miller's "520%", a young Brooklyn auditor who in 1899 defrauded fraudulent investors for more than $ 1 million. He introduced this type of crime in 1919 when he founded a stockbroker in Boston. Instead of buying foreign exchange coupons used to buy stamps around the world, he sold them in bulk in the US because they were so valuable in other countries, such as Millers' goods, Ponzi bought them, promising speculators that money could be invested.

More than 7,000 investors, most of them retired, have invested in the $ E. million hotel fraud, which was reported to be worth $ 500 million. Investors have taken over barriers in New York and raised an estimated $ 1.5 billion Bennett Funding Group, described by regulators as a major and ongoing Ponzi scheme.

In fact, a company called Wealth Pools International has paid its retailers to hire more non-profit retailers by selling DVDs, making it a product-based pyramid scheme. Another high-profile marketing company under investigation as a pyramid scheme was Herbalife Ltd. Herbalife's distributors make money by selling the company's products, but they buy and sell products worth thousands of dollars before making any profit. With distributors being compensated for selling products rather than hiring consumers, there was no doubt that the Amway's Plan was an official multi-grade advertising program, but it was still an illegal pyramid scheme.

Pyramid schemes take many forms, including the promise to make money by hiring new employees. The pyramid schemes promise consumers and investors high returns by attracting others to their programs, but not to profits from real investments or real sales of assets in the community. The idea of a pyramid scheme is not to make money on a product or service, but by hiring, persuading others to pay to participate so that they do not miss the opportunity to make money, and then encourage others to look for other people and leave after no money has been made.

A pyramid scheme is a business venture that collects members by promising to pay for services or to integrate others into the system by investing or selling products. In the Ponzi scheme, participants are promised a return on investment in shares or assets paid for by new investors, a senior manager who takes part in profits. In practice, the design of the pyramid system causes some to find victims and raise money to find a way to the top of the pyramid.

A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud in which fraudsters steal money from investors and hide the theft by offering customers a refund as contributions from new investors. Basically, the Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment, in which first-time investors are paid to invest by the latest investors to make the system look legitimate.

Pyramid scammers and other illegal companies (Ponzi racketeers) are looting money honestly, with investors expecting money to grow or disappear. In many pyramid schemes, investors are unsure of how much they will make but know that they will continue to hire other people in the scam and the money will follow. Ponzi schemes with pyramids are similar because they can provide high returns for the first few investors in a short period of time.

The pyramid scheme is an unconventional business model where first-time investors make money by enticing others to sell real products or services. A product or service is an intangible object that appears automatically.

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About the Creator

Alex Ghimire

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