Ironically, it is just the kind of juicy swindler story you might binge watch on those platforms: Horwitz, a 35-year-old actor who had bit roles in a handful of low-budget films over the past decade, pleaded guilty last fall to committing federal securities fraud and running an illegal operation known as a Ponzi scheme. For years, prosecutors say, Horwitz used his investors’ money to fund a lavish Hollywood lifestyle — until his scam unraveled.
In short, a Ponzi scheme is a type of financial fraud that uses money from new investors to pay off earlier ones.
Although Ponzi schemes have a long history, they are far from a bygone threat, experts say. In fact, they remain a major risk to investors in an era of soaring stock markets and wild surges in new-fangled assets like NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Horwitz’s case appears to check the major boxes for a Ponzi scheme: They’re typically perpetrated by (a) men who (b) promise steadily high returns with minimal risk and (c) often prey on…
