The case year is 1920. The biography around it explains how a local collapse became a legal noun.
These entries follow court dates and the Post's published chronology.
Timeline
- Arrival in the United States
Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi lands in the U.S. after leaving Italy. Later records note early theft and forgery troubles in Canada and the U.S.
- Securities Exchange Company
Ponzi organizes the Boston note business that will advertise coupon profits and 45-day returns.
- Boom months
Early and mid-1920 see rapid inflows. Agents recruit. The office becomes a Boston spectacle.
- Boston Post investigation
In July and August the Post publishes articles showing the coupon market cannot support the books. Barron supplies finance-press arithmetic.
- Surrender
In August Ponzi surrenders to federal and state authorities as redemptions and the press close the business.
- Federal mail-fraud plea
In November he pleads guilty to federal mail fraud and is sentenced to five years.
- State mistrial
A Massachusetts larceny trial ends without a verdict. Prosecutors retry the case.
- State conviction
A Massachusetts jury convicts Ponzi of larceny. He later serves state time after the federal sentence.
- Deportation
After release from state custody, immigration authorities deport him. He does not return to a U.S. career.
- Death in Rio
Ponzi dies on 18 January 1949 in Rio de Janeiro. By then U.S. enforcement already used his name as a category.
After 1925 the live U.S. file is custody and deportation; the naming of the scheme was already underway in the press.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.