Boston Post series (1920)
report
July-August articles that compared advertised profits with coupon-market size. The Pulitzer file treats them as the civic investigation of record.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety90
Mystery20
Scale55
Evidence70
Legal impact75
Culture92
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Quick answers
What did Charles Ponzi claim to be doing?
He told investors that profits would come from buying and redeeming International Reply Coupons across borders. Investigators in 1920 showed that coupon issuance could not support the money he was taking.
When did the scheme collapse?
Public unraveling came in July-August 1920 as the Boston Post published its investigation and investors sought redemptions. Ponzi surrendered to authorities in August 1920.
What was he convicted of?
He pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud in 1920. Massachusetts later convicted him of larceny after a 1922 mistrial and a 1925 guilty verdict. He served federal then state time.
How much money was involved?
Contemporary estimates commonly cite about $15-20 million in 1920 dollars of liabilities or take, with tens of thousands of note-holders. The figure is not comparable, unadjusted, to late-twentieth-century cases.
Did the Boston Post really break the case?
The Post's July-August 1920 reporting, using Barron and postal facts, is the investigation the Pulitzer board later honored. State and federal officers were already looking; the newspaper made the arithmetic public.
Was this the first such fraud?
No. Earlier promoters had paid old investors with new money. The 1920 Boston collapse is the namesake event in English, not the first instance in history.
Compared with Madoff or Enron, the surviving paper is thinner and more worn. What remains is still enough for a completed criminal story.
The items below are the public pillars cited in later encyclopedias and court definitions.
Exhibits
Barron's coupon arithmetic
report
Published analysis that the world's reply-coupon float could not generate the returns Ponzi was paying. A finance-press document, not a police confession.
Investor notes
exhibit
Short-term notes promising fixed high returns in 45 days. They are the contractual face of the intake the courts later called larceny and mail fraud.
Federal mail-fraud plea (1920)
judgment
The November 1920 guilty plea and five-year sentence are the first completed federal judgment.
Massachusetts larceny record
judgment
The 1925 conviction after a 1922 mistrial is the state-law judgment that kept him in custody after the federal term.
Postal circulars on IRCs
document
Official descriptions of what International Reply Coupons were for. They establish that the instrument was real and that its purpose was postage, not a scaled investment engine.
How strong is the record?
Public arithmetic85
The coupon-versus-cash mismatch was shown in 1920 and has not been seriously reversed.
Criminal judgments88
Federal plea and state conviction are historical fact.
Surviving ledgers55
Full modern forensic reconstructions do not exist at Madoff scale; totals are contemporary estimates.
Biographical later years60
Florida and Brazil chapters are thinner and more anecdotal than the Boston docket.
The evidence problem is archival thinness, not doubt that the 1920 notes were paid from new money.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.