Most swindlers come and go.
Charles Ponzi, however, has staying power. Perhaps you know little or nothing about the Italian immigrant who moved to Boston in 1919, was deported to Italy, and died years later in a Rio de Janeiro charity ward. The schemes take many forms, but they all depend upon a steady stream of new investors. It's that infusion of new money that pays off the earlier investors and keeps the scheme alive. Without new investors, the Ponzi house of cards collapses under its own weight.