History Main / Ponzi

* Multi Level Marketing schemes[[note]]Whether a multi-level marketing company is ''inherently'' a Ponzi or more often a Pyramid scheme is controversial in real life.[[/note]] are mentioned/shown several times in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', and the PunnyName of one of the students, who engages in shady business practices references this type of scheme.
* In ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' the Wendigo Vehicle Group got started when its founder leveraged a number of fake property and mineral deeds to buy out a company with actual assets which he then used to buy more companies. This was so successful that he was able to become one of the 7th Core, the ruling body of the Capitalist Enterprise. Silk Spider, a con artist, took over as the founder's secretary and insulated him from the company. While maintaining Wendigo's standing as a major company, she sold off all of the company's assets while also selling bogus stocks, massively enriching herself.

* ''Film/TheWizardOfLies'' is an HBO made-for-cable movie about the infamous scheme orchestrated by Bernie Madoff, with Creator/RobertDeNiro in the leading role. (Watch the official trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G2carVhVJk here]].)
* In ''Film/DasepoSonyo'', Poor Girl's family is impoverished largely because her mother bought thousands of worthless pyramids in the mistaken belief that she could sell them for lots of money.
* ''Film/MollysGame'': 'Bad' Brad is running a Ponzi scheme and using Molly's game to recruit wealthy suckers into the scheme. It is Molly's unknowing involvement in the scheme that first brings her to the FBI's attention when Brad's scheme comes crashing down.
* ''Film/ThePolkaKing'': Based on real-life events, polka musician Jan Lewan takes increasingly larger investments (with huge interest margins) from fans that’s he cannot pay back because none of his many businesses ventures, including his polka band and gift shop, turn an adequate profit. A slightly more amicable version as he seems to appear genuinely convinced he’s going to make it big and be able to pay everyone back (he doesn’t).
* The investment firm in ''Film/TheMurderMan'' is apparently this, even if no one seems to quite realize it. The murder in question involves the head of the scheme getting shot to death while riding in his limo. Another scene has angry investors wanting their money back. An accountant at the firm matter-of-factly tells a detective that he customarily converted investor securities into cash and deposited the cash in his boss's account.
* The protagonist of ''Film/UncutGems'' engages in these (as well as high-stakes sports betting to recoup his losses) and is in deep financial trouble with multiple powerful people as a result.

* In the subplot of ''Film/BennysVideo'', Eva and her friends organize an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_game airplane game]] as part of a get-rich scheme. It is later revealed that the scam worked to great success with Eva profiting tremendously.

* In ''Literature/{{Orca}}'', Vlad and Kiera investigate a massive conspiracy that stems from a crooked investment scheme. It turns out that [[spoiler:it's all a GovernmentConspiracy by TheEmpire to prevent a financial panic from crippling the economy if the news about the scam got out]].
* Used in one of the short stories in the Creator/ElleryQueen collection ''QBI - Queen's Bureau of Investigation''.

* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': The villains of book #23 (''The Cat Who Smelled a Rat'') are revealed to be involved in one. [[spoiler: Including notorious crooked businessman Don Exbridge and Mayor Gregory Blythe, along with supposed bookseller Kirt Nightingale, who's revealed to be a Moose County native who returned to town under an alias.]]
* ''Literature/ChocoholicMysteries'': [[spoiler: One of the villains in ''Cat Caper'' was doing this. He ultimately manipulated another woman into stealing from her boss to feed more money into the same scheme, which is what led to their exposure when they murdered said boss in order to try and cover things up.]]

* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' featured an episode about multi-level marketing. However, their legal department informed them that it's legally considered slander to use the terms "pyramid scheme" or "Ponzi scheme" if a multi-level marketing company only pays commission on sale of a product (which all of their case studies adhered to). If commissions are paid for recruiting new members, the business becomes an illegal Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme. Penn and Teller got around this with a VisualPun: they stood in front of a picture of a large pyramid, all the while complaining to their lawyer on-camera about [[CouldSayItBut how they couldn't use a certain word]] just because the companies were selling a product.

* One episode of ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' has Alan accidentally sets up a Ponzi scheme by asking his friends and family for money for advertisements and paying them back with each other's money. When he realizes what he has done, he decides to just go with it and spends the rest of the money on himself. In the end, he is saved because he is bribed by [[spoiler:Rose]] to keep quiet about [[spoiler:her fake marriage]] and can pay everyone back.
* The plot of the CBS SitCom ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'' is based on the fallout from one of these. Martin Channing was found guilty of executing a Ponzi scheme and all of his bank accounts were frozen, leaving his daughter Caroline without any money to her name and needing work. This led her to seek employment as a waitress in a diner, where she met Max, who she now lives with.
* One episode of ''Series/MyFamily'' has the Harpers get conned into joining a pyramid scheme named Pyramus. The recruiter persuades them it's not a pyramid scheme by arguing that [[RefugeInAudacity if it was, would they have named it "Pyramus"?]] When the Harpers try this same line on ''their'' prospective marks, they see through it, and ultimately the family loses most of what they invested.

* In series three of ''Series/DowntonAbbey'', Robert (who has previously lost much of the family fortune through a combination of bad investments and bad luck), resists a plan to modernize Downton and make it economically efficient. As a substitute, he suggests investing with an American chap called Ponzi, of whom he's heard great things.
* In the season 2 finale of ''Series/OddMomOut'' the ultra-wealthy of New York discover the man they've been investing in "Pulled a Madoff." Keeping with the show's satirical tone, many of these people are still very well off but consider being dropped into a lower tax bracket to be the same as poverty. Ironically, main character Jill (long looked down on for not being as rich as her neighbors) and her husband are okay as they were never wealthy enough to be invited to invest in the guy. Sadly, Jill's mother-in-law put in almost everything she had and is now flat broke.
* In ''Series/{{Nikita}}'' season 2, both [[PlayfulHacker Birkoff]] and [[BigBad Percy]] get defrauded by one of these in a [[GambitPileup scheme involving Team Nikita]] trying to get to Percy's money.

* ''Series/TheGoodFight'' kicks off with Chicago financier Henry Rindell arrested for running his invite-only fund as a Ponzi scheme. It turns out that Rindell lost a ton of his own money in 2007 and thus the fund ''never'' invested anything but just used his clients' money for Rindell to keep up the appearances of being rich. Maia, his daughter, soon finds herself hated by investors. Meanwhile, Diane Lockhart discovers that she lost almost all her money to Rindell and finds herself blamed by friends and groups who she encouraged to invest with him as well.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': [[PointyHairedBoss Michael Scott]] tried to sign the office up for one of these. Jim had to literally illustrate a pyramid to make him realize it's a scam.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': The Gang attempts to pull this kind of scam multiple times in "Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare." Dee falls for the first one because the scammers claim that their organizations are "[[InsistentTerminology reverse funnel systems]]," not pyramid schemes. Frank tells her to turn the organizational chart upside down and when she does she finally realizes the truth.
* In the ''Series/PlayingHouse2014'' episode "None of Your Business", Emma has to bail Tina out of a pyramid scheme involving overpriced makeup.
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': The murderer in "Calling the Shots" is running a Ponzi. The VictimOfTheWeek is killed when she threatens to expose it.

* On ''Series/{{Empire}}'', long-time successful producer Eddie is only helping the Lyons out briefly. However, one of his ex-wives shows up to tell him that his business manager just ripped him off of most everything they had, leaving him, her, his other ex and all his kids basically broke. Eddie decides to keep working at Empire to keep up appearances and not let the Lyons know how bad off he is.

* The kids toku show ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'' has vampirism being portrayed as a cross between this and a CelestialBureaucracy-- vampires, like Count Fangula, don't actually have to suck blood to survive, but it's apparently their job-- they have a quota to fill and if they don't fill it they get punished.
* A re-enactment and explanation of the original Ponzi scheme worked is shown in the "Scams" episode of ''Series/WhiteRabbitProject''.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has a former MLM operator, now turned into a vampire, running a ''vampiric'' Ponzi scheme - "Turn Two, One For Food". It has pep rallies and everything.
* The ''Series/ICarly2021'' episode [[Recap/ICarly2021S1E9IMLM "iMLM"]] has Griffin, an [[Recap/ICarlyS02Ep16IDateABadBoy old boyfriend]] of Carly's, reentering her life to recruit her into a multi-level marketing scheme selling "Sand", a powder supplement that turns out to be AllNaturalSnakeOil.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Pyramid Scheme" has Beast Boy falling for one such scheme and pulling the others into it. Robin tries to explain to them what a pyramid scheme is (a sketchy and unsustainable business model), but they think it involves actual pyramids and mummies. The main cast sans Robin all start swimming in cash for a while, but then Beast Boy [[OhCrap realizes he forgot that most of their revenue]] has to go to the boss, who happens to be an actual mummy. In huge debt after they literally ate their own profits, the mummy enslaves them into working in the hot, scorching desert much like oxen.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Stanford Allen Stanford's]] scheme gave him de-facto control over Antigua and grossed over $8 billion from swindling clients from the U.S. and Latin America. His "bank" profited from its customers through its [=CDs=][[note]] Certificates of Deposit[[/note]], meaning people placed their life savings at the mercy of Stanford and his free-spending ways. While he spent some money building Antigua's infrastructure and donating to charities like [[https://www.stjude.org/ St. Jude]], most of it was spent lobbying politicians as well as partying and ferrying himself on private jets and yachts. It was not until 2009 when the [=SEC=] raided Stanford's Houston headquarters and ordered his arrest. ''Podcast/{{Swindled}}'' has an overview of Stanford's elaborate Ponzi scheme, [[https://youtu.be/uIscEWALpHw?t=710 which you can listen to here.]]

Most Ponzi schemes use many more than two people, and in fact depend on a constant influx of new people putting in money to pay the other ones. Indeed, a common name for Ponzi schemes is "rob Peter to pay Paul", as the principle is the same -- except that today's Peter is tomorrow's Paul until this grows unsustainable. May also be referred to as a Pyramid Scheme, although technically that's a different kind of scam.[[note]] The difference being that instead of a central figure manipulating the money to keep the marks satisfied, each entrant to a Pyramid scheme is expected to recoup their own investment by recruiting other investors under them in the structure. The further up you are, the more you make, but the bottom tier will never see a profit. Depending on how many people you are expected to recruit, pyramids can quickly require more people than the entire world population.[[/note]] The largest example ever was the $64.8 ''billion'' (in pretend money, anyway) collapse of the firm of Bernie Madoff, whose operation was a classic Ponzi scheme.

Goes without saying, many RippedFromTheHeadlines storylines soon followed in the aftermath of Madoff's arrest.

* In ''LightNovel/WelcomeToTheNHK'', Satou is sucked into a multilevel marketing scheme by an old friend of his. Misaki and Yamazaki force him to confront his friend to get out of it, only to be suckered in themselves.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff Bernie Madoff's]] scheme was distinct from regular Ponzi schemes not just by its size but by its surprising stability. Most Ponzi schemes usually go bust when the new "investments" run out and the operator bails out or gets arrested for fraud. Madoff operated for at least 15 years and probably more like 20 (he later insisted that he didn't start his scheme until the early 1990s but the most probable date is after the 1987 stock market crash) by simply promising his "investors" moderate but reliable rates of return. He was able to keep it up until the economic panic and crash of 2008 led to too many investors taking their money out, causing Madoff's slush fund to dry up.[[note]]On paper, Madoff's clients had approximately $65 billion invested with him in 2008. What he ''actually'' had early that year was $5 billion in cash in a slush fund, from which he paid the occasional withdrawal.[[/note]] That Madoff was chummy with regulators and Jewish charities shocked many, as his family donated generously to them for years and he himself pioneered the trading technology that was later used to develop the NASDAQ, of which he was its CEO at one point.

* A company called DC Solar that supposedly manufactured, leased, and sold solar generators was found to be operating a Ponzi scheme in 2018. The company claimed they had manufactured and leased/sold over 12,000 generators, when in fact less than half that number had actually been built. The owners, Jeff and Paulette Carpoff, intentionally lied to investors in order to obtain money to be used on their own endeavors, which included 150 luxury cars, a private jet, and NASCAR sponsorship. Not only do Jeff and Paulette face up to 30 and 15 years in prison respectively, but NASCAR team Chip Ganassi Racing was forced to close their Xfinity Series team due to lack of sponsorship[[note]]in the process resulting in Ross Chastain, a promising young driver nicknamed "The Watermelon Kid" due to his growing watermelons in his spare time, effectively screwed out of a ride, as Chastain had signed to drive the DC Solar car for Chip Ganassi shortly before the FBI raid[[/note]]. (DC Solar sponsored the team before the raid on the company's headquarters) One of Chip Ganassi's (former) drivers Kyle Larson also had one of his Xfinity Series cars seized by the FBI due to being sponsored by DC Solar. On top of all that, the Carpoffs owe various racetracks that NASCAR races at thousands of dollars in unpaid sponsorships.

** Hints we get: The Crown loans money from Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown loans money to lords of the realm or pays debt to Lannisters, at interest (or just spends it on such things as tourneys, most of which magically ends up in Littlefinger's pockets, because he owns almost all brothels and eateries in King's Landing and beyond). The Crown loans money from Lannisters to pay to Iron Bank. And in circles we go. Until a point in later book when Cersei defaults on payments to Iron Bank. The end result for the kingdom is Iron Bank refusing to lend to anyone from Westeros, calls already outstanding debts from them and starts looking to fund a different king who would pay Crown's debts once he sits on the throne, namely Stannis. The end result for Littlefinger: he gets to change his gold into a lot of political power by loaning (or gifting) the money to lords to pay their suddenly urgent debts to Iron Bank, pushes some of his rich merchant friends into nobility by marrying off their daughters and sons into noble houses and generally tightens his political grasp on society.

** Hints we get: The Crown loans money from Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown loans money to lords of the realm or pays debt to Lannisters, at interest (or just spends it on such things as tourneys, most of which magically ends up in Littlefinger's pockets, because he owns almost all brothels and eateries in King's Landing and beyond). The Crown loans money from Lannisters to pay to Iron Bank. And in circles we go. Until a point in later book when Cersei defaults on payments to Iron Bank. The end result for the kingdom is Iron Bank refusing to lend to anyone from Westeros, calls already outstanding debts from them and starts looking to fund a different king who would pay Crown's debts once he sits on the throne, namely Stannis. The end result for Littlefinger: he gets to change his gold into a lot of political power by loaning (or gifting) the money to lords to pay suddenly urgent debts to Iron Bank, pushes some of his rich merchant friends into nobility by marrying off their daughters and sons into noble houses and generally tightens his political grasp on society.

** Hints we get: The Crown loans money from Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown loans money to lords of the realm or pays debt to Lannisters, at interest (or just spends it on such things as tourneys, most of which magically ends up in Littlefinger's pockets, because he owns almost all brothels and eateries in King's Landing and beyond). The Crown loans money from Lannisters to pay to Iron Bank. And in circles we go. Until a point in later book when Cersei defaults on payments to Iron Bank. The end result is Iron Bank refusing to lend to anyone from Westeros, calls already outstanding debts from them and starts looking to fund a different king who would pay Crown's debts once he sits on the throne, namely Stannis.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Stanford Allen Stanford's]] scheme gave him de-facto control over Antigua and grossed over $8 billion from swindling clients from the U.S. and Latin America. His "bank" profited from its customers through its [=CDs=][[note]] Certificates of Deposit[[/note]], meaning people placed their life savings at the mercy of Stanford and his free-spending ways. While he spent some money building Antigua's infrastructure and donating to charities like [[https://www.stjude.org/ St. Jude]], most of the money was spent lobbying politicians as well as wining, dining, and ferrying himself on private jets and yachts. It was not until 2009 when the [=SEC=] raided Stanford's Houston headquarters and ordered his arrest. ''Podcast/{{Swindled}}'' has an overview of Stanford's elaborate Ponzi scheme, [[https://youtu.be/uIscEWALpHw?t=710 which you can listen to here.]]

** Hints we get: The Crown loans money from Iron Bank of Braavos. The Crown loans money to lords of the realm or pays debt to Lannisters, at interest (or just spends it on such things as tourneys). The Crown loans money from Lannisters to pay to Iron Bank. And in circles we go. Until a point in later book when Cersei defaults on payments to Iron Bank. The end result is Iron Bank refusing to lend to anyone from Westeros, calls already outstanding debts from them and starts looking to fund a different king who would pay Crown's debts once he sits on the throne, namely Stannis.

-->'''Tracey''': Yeah you are! When you were at Mark's house trying to lure him into the Ponzi scheme, I went into the kitchen and found these papers! Look, this one says, "MY NAME IS MACK AND I AM RUNNING A PONZI SCHEME."

-->'''Tracey''': I found more paperwork that says, "IF I DENY THAT I AM RUNNING A PONZI SCHEME, DON'T BELIEVE ME, IT IS 100% A PONZI SCHEME."

* ''[[Series/StewdioMACK]]'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZH5lN-d2AA "Mack the Bank"]] features Mack attempting to start his own bank and perpetrate a Ponzi scheme. It [[UnderStatement does not go well.]]

* Yet another scheme was run by former BoyBand magnate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Pearlman Lou Pearlman.]]

* Adjusting for inflation and overall world economic growth, the all-time biggest Ponzi scheme (so far) was that perpetrated by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Kreuger "The Match King" Ivar Kreuger]]. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the whole mess was basically a combination of a Ponzi scheme, other not-really-legal financial trickery, ''legal'' financial trickery, and genuine successful investments. Add in unclear book-keeping, and the exact size of the Ponzi scheme becomes a tad unclear.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff Bernie Madoff's]] scheme was distinct from regular Ponzi schemes not just by its size but by its surprising stability. Most Ponzi schemes operate with the schemer promising exorbitant returns, stealing all the money given to them, and then either skipping town or getting arrested in fairly short order when the new "investments" run out. Madoff operated for at least 15 years and probably more like 20 (he later insisted that he didn't start his scheme until the early 1990s but the most probable date is after the 1987 stock market crash) by simply promising his "investors" moderate but reliable rates of return. He was able to keep it up until the economic panic and crash of 2008 led to too many investors taking their money out, causing Madoff's slush fund to dry up.[[note]]On paper, Madoff's various clients had something like $65 billion invested with him in 2008. What Madoff ''actually'' had early that year was $5 billion in cash in the bank, where he deposited the money from new investors and from which he paid the occasional withdrawal. The problem came when the crash led to everyone wanting to pull their money out.[[/note]]

* The "5 wallets" scheme in [=PayPal=] and similar systems, similar to the OlderThanRadio "5 addresses" above. It's explicitly prohibited by every payment system, but still widely advertised by spammers. Like its predecessor, this is generally an outright fraud, where all "previous participants" are really the same person (it's easier to set up one person with five [=PayPal=] accounts than find five addresses to use).

* There was a scandal in Mexico involving community savings banks. {{The mark}}s -- most of them impoverished workers with only a few dollars of savings, whose only education was elementary school, and who made up ''roughly 40% of Mexico's population'' -- were lured into legitimate-looking institutions, were promised gigantic interests around 40%, dazed and confused with ebullient [[{{Technobabble}} econobabble]], and then they would pony up their entire life savings, thinking it would finally make them rich. Then the banks played upon the existing corruption and elitism in the Mexican government, and proceeded to bribe the entire judicial system into [[KarmaHoudini protecting them once it was time to get away]]. After a while, all these "savings banks" suddenly closed, and their owners fled to where no one could find them. ''Cue the occasional Molotov bottle thrown against Mexico's banking authorities.''

* The ''Series/ICarlyICarly2021'' episode [[Recap/ICarly2021S1E9IMLM "iMLM"]] has Griffin, an [[Recap/ICarlyS02Ep16IDateABadBoy old boyfriend]] of Carly's, reentering her life to recruit her into a multi-level marketing scheme selling "Sand", a powder supplement that turns out to be AllNaturalSnakeOil.

* The ''Series/ICarly'' reboot episode [[Recap/ICarly2021S1E9IMLM "iMLM"]] has Griffin, an [[Recap/ICarlyS02Ep16IDateABadBoy old acquaintance]] of Carly's, reentering her life to recruit her into a multi-level marketing scheme selling "Sand", a powder supplement that turns out to be AllNaturalSnakeOil.

* In ''Film/{{Revolver}}'', this is how Jake Green makes his fortune once released from prison.

* One episode of ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' has Alan accidentally sets up a pyramid scheme by asking his friends and family for money for advertisements and paying them back with each other's money. When he realizes what he has done, he decides to just go with it and spends the rest of the money on himself. In the end, he is saved because he is bribed by [[spoiler:Rose]] to keep quiet about [[spoiler:her fake marriage]] and can pay everyone back.