Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-08-11
P0Nz| TELLS HOW HE MADE FORTUNE: IN FOREIGN MONEY Says He Merely Conceived Idea, Backed It
 With Money. STILL HOLDS THAT
 HE IS SOLVENT Declines to Reveal the Names of the Men Who Bought Coupons Wholesale in Foreign
 Countries For Him.

Boston, Aug. 10.-Charles Ponzi, .,who claims to have jumped from comparative poverty to multi i-mil- Il1onaire's estate in few months through dealing in international pos tai coupons, told members of the Xii wanis club today, some of the steps in the process by which he claims to have ammassed his fortune
 Ponzi, making his first appearance as an afternoon dinner speaker since he became the most talked of man in the country, after luncheon guest of the club. He was invited some time ago, before he was compelled to cease paymen in his fifty per cent in 45 days" proposition because of the orders issued by the state bank commissioner to the Hanover Trust comnay yesterday to pay no more of Ponzi's checks.
 In opening his remarks, Ponzi re- iterated his claims that he was sol vent and expressed confidence that this would be substantiated by the federal and state investigations now in progress and that he would be able to resume business in few days.
 He related how he had hired q small office, used his small capital in various business schemes, and then, with an international reply coupon always in front of him on his desk "began to do some think ing" He finally obtained financial assistance, he said, to depelop his idea, and spent thousands of dollars in foreign correspondence.
 "I found out," he said, "that the postal coupons were being sold in foreign countries for the equivalent of sixcents ond could be converted into postage stamps. Then all had to do was to figure how many nick els make million.
 q got in touch with men-that's as far as I'll go-who were able to secure for me large amounts of cou- pons in different countries. They bought them with our money and used them as collateral to be redeem ed later.
 "When conditions were right, I offered to borrow money from the public. I offered fifty per cent in 90 days and would not promise to re- dem notes in 45, though I thought that three weeks was about the right time to bank the money here, and send it abroad, get the stamps and convert them into cash.
 "I started the Securities Exchange company. I was everything from president to office boy. The secc- ond day after I opened a gentlemen from the chamber of commerce came to my office to investigate. He was convinced that my scheme was pos sible. Ninety per cent of the peo- pie did not know about the inter- national reply coupons.
 "Then post office inspector came. I asked him if it was legal to buy international reply coupons abroad and change it to stamps. He said 'yes' I asked him if it was le- gal to redeem millions of the cou pons, and he said mo- He would have to decide whether they were stolen or where they came from.
 However, I decided that if I re- deemed the stamps in the United States the federal government might decide that it came within it's juris- diction though there was no federal or state law against it. But the ex- change rate was the same in Switz' erland and Norway and some other countries. So I decided to redeem there there."