Top 10 Craziest Ponzi Schemes
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- The Craziest Ponzi Schemes in History. Top Ten True Crime Stories. A hundred years ago in 1920, Charles Ponzi became famous when his investment scheme collapsed. Ponzi promised to double investors money in three months, at his peak he brought in more than $2 million per week at his offices in downtown Boston.
Ninety years later, Bernie Madoff was all over the news for the same reason. Madoff had taken Ponzis scheme and ran it on a much larger scale. Prosecutors estimated the fraud to be worth $65 billion. While Ponzis scheme burned out in less than six months, Madoffs scheme lasted for twenty years.
Dozens of Ponzi schemes are uncovered every year. The true toll of these Ponzi Schemes on the economy is unknown, but whenever you are being pitched something that seems too good to be true, odds are that it is.
I have put together this collection of the top ten strangest Ponzi schemes, and there are some really crazy schemes out there. Let me know if I have missed out on a good one.
Patreon Page: / patrickboyleonfinance
0:00 Introduction
2:07 The Yilishen Tianxi Group - Ants
4:37 Susi Emu Farms
6:43 Cassandra Partners
10:05 Buddy Persaud - Astrology
11:24 JCS Enterprises - Virtual Concierge Machine
12:48 Sundown Entertainment - Comic Books
14:15 ZeekRewards
16:00 Mutual Benefits Corporation - Life Insurance
17:42 Greater Ministries International
18:27 Moneytron
Follow up video: • Top 10 Craziest Rogue ...
Number 10
The Yilishen Tianxi Group
More than a million people invested in the Yilishen Tianxi Group by buying and raising boxes of black mountain ants.
Wang Zhendong the companys founder was sentenced to death for this fraud.
Number 9
Susi Emu Farms
M.S. Guru operated Susi Emu Farms, which promised investors a weekly return of $120 in exchange for a $3,000 investment that supposedly purchased a baby emu.
Number 8
Dana Giacchetto and Cassandra Partners
Dana Giacchetto managed money for A-list stars as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and the cast members of the TV show Friends. He often partied with a cockatoo perched on his shoulder. It turned out he was a pirate.
Number 7
Buddy Persaud, was arrested and charged with operating a Ponzi scheme that promised risk-free returns derived from investing in the futures markets and other markets. His trading strategies were based on lunar cycles and the gravitational pull between Earth and the moon.
Number 6
JCS Enterprises
Investors were told that an investment in JCS Enterprises involved the purchase of a virtual concierge machine that resembled a bank automatic teller machine and allowed users to view advertisements for products or services. Investors were told that their machine would be placed in a business where it could generate lucrative profits.
Number 5
Sundown Entertainment Inc
Sundown Entertainment Inc purported to specialize in the distribution of film and comic-book rights. Potential investors were told that their investment would be used to purchase the rights to old film footage that then would be used to produce and distribute movies and documentaries. Sundown lured investors by promising returns on short-term investments of up to 150%. In total, Sundown raised more than $7 million from over 150 investors.
Number 4
ZeekRewards, solicited investors worldwide to participate in its penny-auction business where participants could “bid” on popular merchandise in 1-cent increments. In addition to the ‘retail” business, the company also promised its “affiliates” hefty returns for recruiting new participants and placing free advertisements on other sites. In return, those “affiliates” were rewarded with daily returns of 1.5%. In total, nearly 1 million “affiliates” would entrust more than $500 million to ZeekRewards.
Number 3
Mutual Benefits Corporation was a Florida based investment sales company that operated a huge ponzi scheme selling viatical settlements, with investors losing an estimated $835 million. The company operated for around ten years, selling $1.25 billion worth of life insurance policies to 30,000 investors.
Number 2
Greater Ministries International was a Christian ministry that ran a Ponzi scheme taking nearly 500 million dollars from 18,000 people. Headed by Gerald Payne in Tampa, Florida.
Number 1
Moneytron
Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, was a self-styled financial wizard and Marxist turned anarchist, one-time owner of a Formula One racing team, convicted fraudster, former heroin addict, novelist - and possibly the most colourful figure in the history of Belgian politics.
Van Rossem set up in business as a stock-market guru claiming he found a formula for predicting and beating markets, yielding enormous returns. He set up an investment company called Moneytron, the name of a "supercomputer" able to predict economic fluctuations, a machine nobody else ever got to see as it was supposedly kept behind a locked door in his office. - Розваги
I recommend investing in a diversified portfolio of Ponzi schemes.
and like having sex, be sure to "pull out" at the right time !!!
I mean if ur a shortterm trader, go for it 😅🤣
🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑
I used to do that alot. Works like a charm hehe
I can return 20% of your initial investment in 6months
Wang Fengyou of the ant scheme was not actually sentenced to death, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison. A different person (Wang Zhendong) who used the same scheme a year after the riot was sentenced to death .
Imagine seeing some dude sentenced to 150 years and thinking, whoa, I'm going to do the exact same thing.
@@mipmipmipmipmip daft chinese thinking. The Vietnamese have ridiculous martial arts scandals that people buy into. I tend to notice that about 10% or more of Vietnamese are stunningly dumb. Like beyond levels of western comprehension. Too many scams in Asia in general.
@@mipmipmipmipmip Imagine being Chinese
@@mipmipmipmipmipIt's China, so that was probably regarded as getting off light.
Okay. But i mean ... doesn't that show that deterrence by harsh sentences kinda doesn't work?
There was a German company where people could buy shipping containers and get modest returns from the yearly lease. Apparently it started off semi legit, but somewhere they stopped actually buying containers and instead just shifted any newly invested money around until it all collapsed. A lot of people lost all they wanted to use as a retirement plan.
Great to find this channel after watching the interview on Coffeezilla
Thanks, hope you enjoy it.
This channel will moon now kek. Solid content i searched for that video but i couldnt find it.
@@TeDynef Here is a link.ua-cam.com/video/JfP4rVsmL_Q/v-deo.html
I just noticed that Bitcoin and crypto Currencies are all nothing but Ponzi Schemes disguised in a revolutionary technology.
K
"the chinese court sentenced him to death..." Man, that gave me a bit of a shock. Was not ready for that!
ive said it once ill say it again: the chinese know how to run a country for the modern age
@@KingSlimjeezy I wouldn't go that far
I applaud their decisiveness but just like any country on earth, they are flawed and the flaw is getting more obvious by the day in recent years.
Their incompetence in taking care of the early covid that originated from Wuhan china says it all. All of the people in charge are too busy covering up their mistake instead of taking action and here we are today. Corruption and Nepotism are especially strong in the government which is a headache as there is no check and balance of multiple parties like in a democratic nation, tho seeing how broken America is it isn't saying much.
He said it so casually. I was like, "oh yeah that makes....wait what?"
I mean it's China drug dealers get sentenced to death there all the time
Back around 1968 when I was 14, this kid Tom Wilson I knew, thought he was going to get rich, raising earthworms and selling them back to some company in Florida. He begged and pleaded his mom to give him $25 for a start-up kit, what would be $250 today. It was of course a scam. Tom worked a whole week out in the hot sun, digging a pit and building a worm farm. The baby worms all died
Lol, ironically now you can make pretty good money farming worms
We had a kid in school who actually was a successful scammer. He would brag about how he had started a company just so he could get startup money from the government, that he then used to go on a trip with his friends that were the "founders". The trip would be a "meeting" and therefore a business expense. He was 14, I was 15. He seemed to think that was completely fine. I felt like he was real shady even back then.
Is Tom still alive today?
@@pinoyheartbeat7245 the worms got him
@@CainXVII
Did he get charged with defrauding the government?
India: How about we hunt the emus.
Australian: no... don’t...
Hearing some of the sentences these people got is absolutely infuriating. My brother was put away for 8 years for stealing a car out of a driveway and some of these peoe did half that for stealing the value of like 30 cars or more.
JP van Rossem was a person I actually knew. I even had a mad drive as a passenger in one of his Ferraris after a night out in several 90's era top Belgian clubs where he regularly bought champagne for the whole club. A colorful man with a great view on economics. He was a genius at sales and politics. But still, a criminal. He has passed meanwhile, empoverished and frowned upon by half of Belgians and as a hero for the other half. Everything came apart for him when his big foul mouth pissed off some of the elite establishment (heads of state as you say).
He even tried to launch a political party some years before his death.
@@dardo1201 he even got elected as representative from 1992 to 1995! The party was called ROSSEM. He got political immunity from it, keeping him out of jail for a while longer. Many people later speculated this was the main reason he got into politics in the first place.
@@dennisdecoene right, didn't know if that was his own party as well. I remember being pretty interested in his last attempt until it quickly fell apart due to the random infighting, including with the chairwoman who also became his gf and then his ex-gf I believe.
Moral of the video, be hyper careful of businesses with Florida roots.
🤣🤣🤣
What about Georgia, Jekyll Island?
I thought it was to be cautious when something is being endorsed by celebrities.
How legit are MTI traders in Orlando I keep seeing the same old ad on You Tubes.Make money from Forex or your money back.?
Basically lol
Imagine flexing on your political opponents by saying basically “yeah I’m an awful candidate, a bad person, and a literal criminal. But I’m still a better candidate than the other guy.”
"Coming in at #7, we have a Florida man who went a bit too far on relying on the heavens for riches." Absolute gold! 😂🤣👍
I mean what do you expect from Florida man? :D (check out some of donut operators videos on "Florida man" they are gold)
Ĺ. .
Someone got fish?
I actually trade of moon cycles not a joke. If you don’t believe look it up. It’s actually good strategy
You are the inadvertently funniest, plain speaking man in finance I have ever seen. Great work!
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the videos.
Glad I watched this...a number of these schemes last around 8-10 years+ giving them a level of credibility.
That's enough time to hqve some of your detractors dies of natural causes.
I came here yesterday from the coffeezilla video and as somebody studying finance, this chanel is godsend.
I’ve been greatly enjoying your content recently! Very informative and interesting and I appreciate you putting out videos on these topics.
In the Downton Abbey TV series the Duke is thinking he should invest to stop the estate going bankrupt. It's just a throwaway line, but like so much of Downton Abbey was hilarious! "I 😢 hear that Ponzi chap is doing awfully well in America."
I'm sure he's mentioned in Boardwalk Empire too!
Wasn't he Italian?
@@rustyshackelford3371yes you're right!
Whiskey (or whisky in U.S.) scam of the 1990s. I don't know very much about this except a mate bought two casks of whiskey - in storage in a warehouse. I remember him calling me up in mid 1997 and telling me that they had offered to buy them back at 50% more than he paid for them, so what did he do? Right, he fell for it - didn't sell but bought more. I never found out what happened in his case but have heard that one company went bankrupt in 1997 and all the customers were left with was a yearly bill of £24 for warehouse rent.
Atleast he's got a lifetime supply of whiskey now
It’s actually spelled either way in the US, the spelling is apparently dependent on where the beverage came from. I believe it’s something like if the country or state it was made in has an E in the name, then the drink has an E in the spelling as well. That’s what my dad told me, anyhow, and he sure loves that stuff and nerd things generally
@@DannyDevitoOffical-TrustMeBro Acknowleged.
Love your channel man. So so under subbed. Keep working your channels gold and will catch fire.
When number 10 gets sentenced to death you know you are in for a wild ride.
"The robbing Peter to pay Paul"
"The robbing Peter to payPaul"
"The robbing Peter to PayPal"
ok
So your telling people that ‘Paul’ and ‘pal’ sound similar?
What’s happening next is going to shock you! :
“They”
“Hey”
See what I did there?
@@IllIlllI No, that's not what I'm telling people. Also, it's "you're" not "your"
Be more direct. Instead of the riddle just tell us how PayPal is a Ponzi scheme
Haha
I don't know what Patric is talking about, these all sound like great companies with promising futures.
PS: Anyone interested in some emu oil and ant medicine?
Fantastic video. Just incredible stories. Thanks for making this video.
Now this is much needed content on UA-cam, subbed!
You have a marvelously dry sense of humour, Patrick. From this point on I shall be on the lookout for parrots on shoulders, especially if their owner is from Florida! :-)
It is the best 'tell'
Keep up the great work Patrick; thanks to your channel I finally understand completely the difference between a pyramid and ponzi scheme and you've given me an insight into what Ponzi did, how he and his ilk are a product of their times and the corrupt system that creates them and how others have continued this dubious tradition.
Excellent video! a few flash frames here and there, but the info was excellent.
Keep up the good work! I really like your channel. Its effective and intriguing!
honorable mention to bitconnect
BITCONNEEEEEEEEECT
Legend!
@@RandomDeathChild i heard that comment in my head.
@@ajbrewer1777 WASASWASAWASAP MY NAME IS CARLOS MATOS FROM NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK MY WIFE DOESNT BELIEVE IN ME WHAAAAAAAAT?
and USI Tech
I like this format of videos along with your educational ones. I notice top 10 videos do well in youtube -(as well as click baity titles). Best of luck and thank you
I like you're voice and the comprehensiveness of your research, but to top it all off is your unique sense of humor!
That was so interesting! I was so shocked when I heard the first guy was sentenced to death but then I was also shocked by the short sentences that some of the other people got.
Patrick, you're amazing. I found you with the first Charles Ponzi video. Keep it up, please.
This channel is building momentum. Bout to take off!
Thank you Patrick for your precious content on your channel!
good channel man, interesting viewpoints and topics
Great video. Another one I thought of was Scott Tucker and his payday loans business. Not really a ponzi scheme, but what a scam.
This last guy’s like “oh no! I got caught running a seven billion euro Ponzi scheme!! 🤔 I know! I’ll run for parliament and win!!! Then I don’t have to go to jail” and it WORKED 🤣
Sounds like ol’ Trump went to school on this guy big-time!!
@@kineahora8736 oh dude exactly 🤣
One of the creators behind the Pirate Bay attempted to do that, to run for office to avoid being jailed, he was not elected though, so he went to jail.
He must have gone to the school of biden
Exact same thing happened in Russia
Endearingly watchable... Lovely stuff - entertaining, and (more importantly) enlightening.
Great video glad I found you!
Great video. I would love to hear your take on the Lebanese banking crisis which has been called a giant Ponzi scheme. Thanks for the excellent presentations.
Patrick must be fun at parties, the sarcasm. lol
Great content! Waiting for top 10 pump&dumps.
Why would you want the guy managing your money to be out in clubs till 5am with a cockatoo?
Actors aren't drawn from our best and brightest.
If you think back to the type of people that did drama class in school.
Normally the stoners that can barely count their own fingers.
Hollywood is the prefect place to target with ponzi schemes because they are all too dumb to see it, all loaded, and they are all so vain they don't want to be seen as missing out.
People are what they want to see. I've seen people look at two sums of numbers and twist things around to interpret the smaller sum as larger because that's the result they want.
I know this is old, but I've got what may be an amazing post script to the emu farm story. It caught on in the United States as well. My dad knew an emu farmer who was obviously not making much profit. However, he was offsetting his losses by selling the emu eggs laid by the female emus. These were rather large green colored eggs on the outside. On the inside, they looked like tremendously oversized chicken eggs. What did my dad do with those eggs? Well he made omelets of course! You can make a very big omelet with two emu eggs!
Did it taste nice?
@@jamesmeow3039 I don't know. He kept it all for himself.
@@Fudmottin did he think it tastes nice?
@@jamesmeow3039 He says he did. I don't think he's still buying emu eggs though.
But was is Ponzi or simply Emu farming?
Emu oil is definitely a thing. It’s collected from their feathers and sold as a muscle soothe ointment. You can find it in any Aussie supermarket
Bullshit. It comes from the carcase
My aunt swears by it.
Also great on salads ...
@@philipgibbs5751 Correct - comes from their body fat.
@@thoughtquake7516 sounds like tallow. I lived across from an emu farm in the late 80s and early 90s as a kid. They had emu oil. Still today I have skin cream with it in it. I ate the eggs and all.
I got to say I'm so disappointed I didn't find your channel earlier but I'm so glad I stumbled across your in coffeezilla's conversations because your content is just wonderful
Thank you for your information.
Great story telling 👍🏼
Good sense of humor mate.
Subscribed after seeing the interesting interview on Coffeezilla - already paying dividends with this first video that hit my list. Look forward to more.
Looking forward to watching this when I have time
Very informative and interesting stuff, thanks. Subbed. Keep it up.
Thanks for the sub!
Why are most of them concentrated in Florida?!!!
i live in florida and had no idea we had so many
Because Florida man lives there
Poverty get rich quick
Probably because of retirees and rich people. Lots of money going around here in Florida.
And Email Trolling via Online Dating Boiler Room setups from Nigeria
Amazing expose. I am subscribing
You are awesome!!
Thank you !
I’m only on 8 and I love this already! Thank you for a go to sleep video. Not that it’s boring but I’m satisfied I found such a good video before bed. Good job on this!
I misread that as you saying you’re only 8 and I was like oh god not on this channel too
Calling a fund "Cassandra" is a red flag. Cassandra was a prophet of doom.
My boss is named Cassandra... she is a 100% bitch .
@@someoneelse293 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@AnnaMarrie-SWT i honestly think she's going to fire me today
Schit my crush name is cassandra
@@zubairsheikh6067 run bro... don't look back
I am loving your content. Brilliant.
Much appreciated!
Great content! Really informative and exact.. keep it up 👍
But hey, wheres the Wolf of Wallstreet pink-sheets ponziegame?? 😃
this man is a criminal comedian inside. subtle but smooth. great content. saw the same in cofeezilla..subtle but smoothhh
Coffeezilla got me here.. thanks for the excellent content
Awesome! Thank you!
Love this dude. Love this channel
I've always heard his name pronounced as MAD-off, but MADE-off is a perfect description! I love your humor.
Someone finally got me to understand the Ponzi ...good job...like your style sir..so Ponzi is something like insurance policy. ?
Ponzi schemes are investments, while insurance policies are protections.
In Belgium there are still thousands of people waiting for Jean Pierre van Rossum to come back and bring the wealth he promised.
Belgium 's got talent 😅
Probably the same ones banking on flanders language valley.
The fact that they elected him to office is proof of the boundlessness of human stupidity and the hopelessness of democracy.
I subbed Sir finally an honest gentleman !!!!!!!!!!!!
Great as allways
Thanks
Sounds like the Australian housing market hahaha
5:33 i could see you were trying to hold back a laughter after saying something absolutely ridiculous.
Well put together video.
Found u on coffee zilla going to enjoy this channel, can't believe I'd forgotten about that real life reacher gilt guy heh.
I agree with the pirate part.
All these scams show the percentage of stupidity that we have.
Thank you very much for the great ,and informative content
And let's not forget the greed.
5:33 One of the funniest things I've seen yet in all these videos: Patrick almost cracking up!
Your wristwatch game is strong.
Classy dressy watches. Seems mostly manual wound.
Great content!
Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it for the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast , and trying to figure out where she's hiding.
"If something sounds too good to be true, odds are, it is" - not quite - it ALWAYS is. Think it through - who out there who doesn't know you from a cheese souffle' wants to help you get "rich" for no good reason??
bitcoin
Wow, nice move - stole peoples money = deathrow.
Sure, but the biggest shock was finding out the *STONKS* meme man has an UA-cam channel.
To be fair, emu oil does retail anywhere from £150 to £250 a litre.
Right? I wonder if that was a legitimate business that was poorly run, cause the emus did exist maybe it was a good idea.
The monotone voice + dry humor is hilarious 😂
Lol Patrick, I see you breaking character at 5:32 and laughing about emu oil
Great content
This was unbelievably entertaining.
Thanks.
Hi Patrick, thank you for the video, brilliant as usual. Might you be able to make a video on Wirecard please ?
Great suggestion!
I just uploaded one a few minutes ago.
Very enjoyable........
Great video.
I have no idea why people will downvote this video?
It's knowledge which is much appreciated, I guess those are the Ponzi Scammer wannabe.
You forgot Herbalife business pyramid scheme
Yes. I think that is probably the largest, by market cap!
Poniz schemes and pyramid schemes are two different things
Eddy Marino Pyramid schemes are camuffated ponzi schemes, they’re the same thing
@@Solid_Snake88 Who told you that they're the same thing? They are similar but not the same.www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/ponzi-vs-pyramid.asp
Eddy Marino They’re the same as long as no one sells the products and just recruit people. If they sell more than 20% of their stock it starts to be a legit business
Indeed, emu oil is a valuable ingredient in topical gel used for relief of arthritis and body/muscle pain.
As usual, you've done an great job with this video.
This content it's GOLD.
Thanks Prof Boyle. Please can you make a video on same subject matter but this time focusing on forex market or trading scams currently making the rounds especially in developing countries like Nigeria...
Keep safe, healthy and happy...
Hi Don, probably the best channel for that type of video is coffezilla. It is a little bit disturbing how many adverts I see on youtube that are obvious scams. Part of the reason I put up this video is to warn viewers of how many scams are out there. While all of these scams have different underlying claims for how they make money, the core scam is the same, a simple Ponzi scheme. The most common scam schemes I see advertised online is people claiming to be hugely successful traders who for some reason are offering to show you all of their signals if you sign up for a training course. I have worked with some of the best traders in the world, and all of them are very secretive about how they make money, because it would make no sense to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, by selling a trading system.
This is truly quite a list!!! Thanks for compiling this. Never heard of some of them! Such lovely innovative ideas! Really brings a lot of color and stories to finance! Seems like Florida is a hotbed for fraudsters... why is that?
I read a while ago that because of Florida's strong public records laws, it's easy for journalists to get their hands on police incident reports and churn out attention-grabbing stories. Nonetheless, it seems that an unusual number of frauds come from there. Amusingly, when Ponzi himself got out of prison, he went to Florida and launched a land based Ponzi scheme.
@@PBoyle
Florida Sunshine Law , hence we hear a lot about Florida man.
ballotpedia.org/Florida_Sunshine_Law
Because there are many retirees there with retirement portfolios. It’s a tax shelter for retirees from NYC.
Patrick, that was a great video (posted 2 years ago, but I only came across it today). Funny thing: I remember watching a presentation by a biographer of Charles Ponzi that argued that there's little evidence that he intended to defraud his clients/investors. Maybe there's some truth to that, don't know.
Amazing content.
You forgot..
..BeeeeetConnnnnneeeect 😌👌
No. 9 yep true, many were duped by the emu farm, even some of my friends lost some money.
5:28 when pat can barely maintain his deadpan. This made my evening 😂🥳
Im here trying to find information on starting a business/start up, and this was suggested to me... is this the direction i should prepare to pivot?