Those of you who take an interest in the history of fraud might recognise this man, the others will probably not. You see before you Charles Ponzi, the Italian-American responsible for the Ponzo scheme (similar to, but not the same as, a pyramid scheme). He arrived in the US with two and a half dollars in his pocket having gambled away his entire life savings on the voyage out from Italy. Fifteen years after his arrival he was making as much as $250,000 a day.
Here he is in the roaring 20s doing something mysterious to a tree, the scoundrel.
The winner of the caption competition is Rob Falconer. Congratulations Rob; a bottle of Italian red (Villa Antinori Toscana 2003) is on its way to you.
His winning caption was:
The original Doctor Who grapples with an actor unconvincingly dressed as an extra-terrestrial rubber plant
Photo credit: CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Rex Features
Previous competitions and winning captions
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Caption
Charles never could spell pansy properly
Caption
Charles proudly shows off his rubber tree, from which most of his cheques are made
Caption
Look, how many people would actually want to buy a pyramid?
Caption
Mr Ponzi demonstrates his new flushing mechanism but realises further development is required before it replaces the hole in the ground
Caption Competition
John Wyndham gets an idea for a book
Caption
The original Doctor Who grapples with an actor unconvincingly dressed as an extra-terrestrial rubber plant
Aspire to tree
Follow the Ponzo system, and you too can own your own tree, just like this one
Ponzo
Is the Ponzo scheme on the level? It's as straight as the fruit in this tree.
fruit
travelling 9,000 miles to show little johnny what a banana looked like was perhaps not as economical as going to Asda
golf
"Play it where it lies!" An early golfing pioneer is having second thoughts about the golf course on a banana plantation
auditor
An auditor demonstrates how a new invention is going to revolutionize stock checks in the banana industry
Accounting Industry
"The Accounting Industry is modern and forward-thinking.." claims one member, pictured above.
Money Tree
Charles Ponzi shows his investors their new money tree.
walk
In his spare time, George Formby liked nothing better than taking his tree for a walk
Tax Less taxing?
Tax less Taxing?
Pull the other one Gordon...