Ponzi scheme

British

/ ˈpɒnzɪ /

noun

a fraudulent investment operation that pays quick returns to initial contributors using money from subsequent contributors rather than profit

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Ponzi scheme

After Charles Ponzi , who famously perpetrated such a scheme in the United States of America in the early 20th century

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And Bernie Madoff ran his own Ponzi scheme for decades before his 2008 arrest.

From Barron's • Mar. 1, 2026

“I mean, you take a 10%, 20%, 15% of a guy’s NIL money, that’s Bernie Madoff level,” Cronin said Friday, referencing the crooked financier who was convicted in a massive Ponzi scheme.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2025

He knew something that others did not: that he was operating a Ponzi scheme.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 17, 2025

After all, Sasha lost about $350,000 of the couple’s money in a Ponzi scheme a couple of years earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 1, 2025

They had the essential feature of a Ponzi scheme: To maintain the fiction that they were profitable enterprises, they needed more and more capital to create more and more subprime loans.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023