The public investigation is a newspaper campaign plus parallel state and federal process. It begins when the books are already large.
This page records those steps. It does not explain how to structure a note program or how to delay a run.
Agencies
- Boston Post — Published the 1920 investigation that made coupon-market arithmetic a public fact and received the 1921 Pulitzer for public service.
- U.S. Attorney (District of Massachusetts) — Brought the federal mail-fraud case that ended in the November 1920 guilty plea.
- Massachusetts state prosecutors — Pursued larceny, enduring a 1922 mistrial and obtaining a 1925 conviction.
- Postal inspectors — Federal postal officers examined the use of the mails in connection with the notes and the coupon story.
What followed
- Press inquiries
Reporters asked how coupon volume could support the advertised returns and sought official postal figures.
- Barron analysis
A finance publisher supplied a market-size comparison the Post could print.
- Publication and run
July-August 1920 articles and investor redemptions arrived together; the office could not meet a full withdrawal.
- Surrender
Ponzi surrendered in August 1920 as state and federal officers took control of the story.
- Federal plea
Mail-fraud charges were resolved by a November 1920 guilty plea and a five-year sentence.
- State retrial
After a hung jury in 1922, Massachusetts obtained a 1925 larceny conviction.
Turning points
- The coupon-volume articles — Once the Post printed that the instrument's market was too small, the promotional story could not be a private dispute.
- The August 1920 surrender — The criminal case acquired a defendant in custody; the rest was charging theory and trial.
- The 1925 state verdict — Federal time alone would have ended sooner. The larceny conviction extended custody and sealed the Massachusetts record.
Investigators in 1920 were explaining a collapse in public view. The method they used was comparison of a real market with a set of notes -- not a secret forensic trick.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.