In 1920, Italian-born Boston promoter Charles Ponzi collected millions from investors by promising 50 percent returns in 90 days, backed by a postal coupon arbitrage scheme that was mathematically impossible at the scale he claimed. The Securities Exchange Company collapsed in August 1920, leaving an estimated 15 million dollars in investor losses and a full list of individual investors that has never been officially published or reconciled. The exact total of what was lost, and what Ponzi personally retained, remains disputed more than a century later.

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