Part 5: Success
Slowly but steadily, Americans begin to gamble with Charles Ponzi. They start by investing as little as $10 to test the waters, and when he gives them $15 after 45 days, they abandon all caution. In subsequent visits, they not only bring him more money, but they also introduce their family, friends, and coworkers.
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| Investors at Ponzi's 27 School Street Office |
The idea of getting rich quick is too good to pass for some people, so they are ready to deposit vast sums of money on what seems to be a sure thing.
By April 1920, word of the enormous fortune that Ponzi is dishing out is spreading like Coronavirus. It moves from taxi drivers to their passengers, shopkeepers to their customers, hotel waiters to diners, and police officers to the criminals.
In market stalls, vendors polish fruits while telling stories of the enormous fortune they are expecting; on the streets, newspaper vendors spread the story from corner to corner; and in homes, servants tell stories of the amazing financial wizard to their employers.
The Security Exchange Company received $5,290 in new investments in February 1920, $25,000 in March, $145,000 in April, $445,000 in May.
By June, deposits are coming in at such a rapid pace that clerks are forced to toss dollar bills into wastebaskets when cash drawers overflow. In June alone, they collect $2.5 million.
