In 1903, a ship full of dreamers docked in Boston. Among their number was a refugee from Lugo in northern Italy. He was cleaned out by cardsharps during the voyage, so he got here with $2.50 in his pocket. Much later, he told a newspaper, “I landed in this country with $2.50 in cash and $1 million in hopes, and those hopes never left me.” That man’s name was Charles Ponzi.
The ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ swindle that now bears his name is one of the first lessons in the syllabus for Grifter 101. And the SEC believes that such was the business plan of Harbor City Capital, the firm where now-Rep. George Santos (if that is his real name) worked prior to his having been elected to the House of Representatives. To be fair, Santos “has said he was unaware of any fraud by Harbor City.” But he does seem to have brought his own brand of shadiness to this shady venture. From the Washington Post:
In two instances, he inflated his own academic or professional credentials, The Post found. In addition, Zoom recordings of workplace meetings show Santos offering anecdotes about his purported interactions with wealthy people — stories disputed by those involved — for potential inclusion in marketing materials or to impress prospective clients.[…]Santos claimed that he once accidentally flipped over a table while in the office of Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire private equity investor and Blackstone CEO[…]“I walked out of there…
