May 5, 2009

Some original Ponzi documents found

From the New York Times:
Lost Manuscript Unmasks Details Of Original Ponzi
In the summer of 1920, William H. McMasters, one of Boston�s top publicists, was in a pickle. A new client, a dapper and charming Italian immigrant named Charles Ponzi, was raking in millions on promises to pay investors 50 percent interest in 45 days.

�If he was everything he claimed, I would have a client such as no man ever had in the publicity field,� Mr. McMasters wrote in a newly found and never published memoir. But, he reflected, �if he was crooked or deluded, I must make up my mind to have him stop taking the money from the public.�

As fate would have it, Mr. McMasters decided that Ponzi was indeed a fraud and wrote a newspaper expos� in The Boston Post. The front-page article declaring that Ponzi was insolvent and had used incoming deposits to pay off earlier investors proved instrumental in unmasking him as history�s most infamous swindler � at least until Bernard L. Madoff came along.

Mr. McMasters remained convinced of his service to humanity � �I do not anticipate that another Charles Ponzi will ever appear in the financial world,� he wrote.

Now that bittersweet narrative, so far known only in fragments, has emerged, offering insights into Ponzi�s downfall, the machinations of the press, and one momentous week that rocked the financial world nearly 90 years ago.

The memoir � �The Ponzi Story,� typed on 206 double-spaced pages and completed around 1962, six years before Mr. McMasters died at 94 � is part of a trove of 2,200 books, manuscripts and pamphlets on swindlers and their frauds, hoaxes and confidence games acquired a year ago and recently catalogued by John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

�We bought it before the financial crisis,� said Larry E. Sullivan, the school�s associate dean and chief librarian, calling the collection �oh so timely.� But, he said, �McMasters was the clincher.�
Now that would be an interesting read. Here is the website for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Posted by DaveH at May 5, 2009 10:12 AM
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