Dictionary

Ponzi scheme en · NOUN

Etymology

Named after con artist Charles Ponzi (1882–1949), who famously conducted such form of fraud in North America in the 1920s.

Meanings

1. A fraudulent scheme where earlier investors are paid with the money taken from new investors, giving the impression that the scheme is a viable investment.
   • Bernard L. Madoff, the one-time senior statesman of Wall Street who in 2008 became the human face of an era of financial misdeeds and missteps for running the largest and possibly most devastating Ponzi scheme in financial history, died on Wednesday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C. He was 82. 2021 April 14, Diana B. Henriques, “Bernard Madoff, Architect of Largest Ponzi Scheme in History, Is Dead at 82”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Now, a long-running Ponzi scheme requires a narrative — and the narrative is where crypto really excels. 2021 May 20, Paul Krugman, “Technobabble, Libertarian Derp and Bitcoin”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

Coordinates

pyramid scheme

Synonyms

Ponzi scam

Translations (15)

es esquema Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme) · hi धोखाधड़ी (illicit money-making scheme) · ur ڈَبَل شاہ (illicit money-making scheme) · pl schemat Ponziego (illicit money-making scheme) · fr système de Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme) · cmn 龐氏騙局 /庞氏骗局 (illicit money-making scheme) · fi Ponzi-huijaus (illicit money-making scheme) · fr pyramide de Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme) · de but see Schneeballsystem (illicit money-making scheme) · de Ponzi-System (illicit money-making scheme) · pt esquema Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme) · it schema Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme) · ka პონცის სქემა (illicit money-making scheme) · sv Ponzibedrägeri (illicit money-making scheme) · es estafa Ponzi (illicit money-making scheme)