Ponzi scheme

English

Etymology

Named after con artist Charles Ponzi (1882–1949), who famously conducted a pyramid scheme in North America in the 1920s.

Noun

Ponzi scheme (plural Ponzi schemes)

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.

   Synonym: Ponzi scam

   Coordinate term: pyramid scheme

   • 2021 April 14, Diana B. Henriques, “Bernard Madoff, Architect of Largest Ponzi Scheme in History, Is Dead at 82”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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 May 20, Paul Krugman, “Technobabble, Libertarian Derp and Bitcoin”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Now, a long-running Ponzi scheme requires a narrative — and the narrative is where crypto really excels.

Translations

illicit money-making scheme

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 龐氏騙局 / 庞氏骗局 (zh) (Páng-shì piànjú)

• Finnish: Ponzi-huijaus (fi)
• French: système de Ponzi (fr) m, pyramide de Ponzi (fr) f
• Georgian: პონცის სქემა (ṗoncis skema)
• German: no equivalent term in German, but see Schneeballsystem (de) n, Ponzi-System n (rare)
• Hindi: धोखाधड़ी (dhokhādhṛī)
• Italian: schema Ponzi m
• Portuguese: esquema Ponzi m
• Spanish: esquema Ponzi m, estafa Ponzi f
• Urdu: ڈَبَل شاہ (ḍabal śāh)