Ponzi's Scheme_ The True Story of a Financial Legend - Mitchell Zuckoff [62]
Ponzi chalked up Cassullo’s extortionate demands as the cost of doing business, and he was too busy to worry about a few thousand dollars when millions were at stake. With help from word-of-mouth testimonials by satisfied customers and the Boston Traveler story, June was on track to be nearly five times better than the previous months combined. One of the biggest sums of the month came from Daniel Desmond, whose investment of ten thousand dollars was made all the more sweet for Ponzi by the fact that the fifty-year-old Desmond was the treasurer of the Lawrence Trust Company. Ponzi was so eager to gild his books with such a large investment from a banker that he made a personal loan to Desmond in the full amount. But Desmond’s investment was dwarfed by one made by Louis and Charlotte Blass, who returned to Ponzi’s office when their twenty-thousand-dollar note reached maturity on June 24. Rather than collect the thirty thousand dollars they were due, the Blasses spun the wheel of fortune again, betting it all on a new note that promised to yield forty-five thousand dollars in forty-five days.
Ponzi’s loyal bookkeeper, Lucy Meli, in their School Street office.
The Boston Globe
CHAPTER TEN
“INEVER BLUFF.”
With his bank accounts bulging and no postal coupons to buy, Ponzi went on a shopping spree. He resolved that the only way to become a latter-day Columbus was to sail on, all sheets to the wind, until he somehow bumped into a continent of profits. His investments fell into four categories: businesses that were already profitable, real estate, unsecured loans to friends, and, most significantly, attempts to gain control of one or more banks. Then there were a few personal items for himself and Rose.
As summer approached, Ponzi spent sixty-one thousand dollars to buy a thousand shares of the Napoli Macaroni Manufacturing Com-pany, joking that he did so to make sure he “wouldn’t run out of spaghetti at home.” He wrote a check for thirty thousand dollars to buy three hundred shares and a controlling interest in the C & R Construction Company. Then one day he wandered past Faneuil Hall and into the offices of his old employer the J. R. Poole Company. After catching up with his former office mates, Ponzi walked unannounced into John Poole’s private office for a meeting that Ponzi never grew tired of recounting.
“Have a seat, Charlie,” Poole said. “They tell me that you’re in business. Dealing in some sort of foreign securities.”
“That’s right,” Ponzi answered.
“How are you making out?” his former boss asked.
“Fairly good,” he replied. “That’s what brought me here. To get your advice. I have a few dollars I would like to invest.”
“Why don’t you buy a few shares of my preferred stock? It pays 7 percent.”
“I would rather have some common.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Poole said. “I will give you twenty-five shares of each.”
“Is that all?” Ponzi asked coyly. “It hardly seems enough to bother with it.”
Poole wondered if his former clerk was joking. “How much more stock do you want?” he asked.
“I’ll take all you have,” Ponzi said casually.
Poole laughed, and then, like a teacher addressing a not terribly bright child, told Ponzi: “Listen, Charlie, it takes a lot of money to buy this company.”
“I figured it would,” Ponzi said. “That’s why I waited this long to call on you. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough.”
“And you may still be short of the mark,” Poole said, beginning to wonder.
They dickered a bit over the price Ponzi would have to pay for a directorship, and Ponzi brought out his checkbook.
“I didn’t think you meant it,