How to Use Ponzi scheme in a Sentence

Ponzi scheme

noun

• Our debt is a giant Ponzi scheme.
  — Les Rubin, Boston Herald, 25 Feb. 2026
• Celsius turns out to be a Ponzi scheme.
  — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 20 Apr. 2026
• Maybe Musk should ask if all forms of insurance are a Ponzi scheme.
  — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 1 Apr. 2025
• My mother was conned twice — once by a Ponzi scheme, once by a diagnosis that dressed up as good health for too many years.
  — Marissa Stapley, PEOPLE, 7 July 2026
• The entire economy of AI is being propped up by a Ponzi scheme.
  — John Ross, Vanity Fair, 24 Mar. 2026
• In the posts, de Hek called out Goliath as a Ponzi scheme defrauding its investors.
  — Stephen Hudak, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2026
• Instead, existing investors were paid with money from new clients — a classic Ponzi scheme.
  — Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2023
• The eight-part series, which will premiere on June 23, traces the rise and fall of the man who gave the Ponzi scheme its name.
  — Peter White, Deadline, 23 Apr. 2025
• Years before, the defendant had been convicted of financial crimes for running what a judge called a Ponzi scheme.
  — Evan Mealins, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025
• One is the Ponzo illusion (not to be confused with a Ponzi scheme, which is a financial illusion).
  — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 18 Oct. 2024
• McPhee instead used incoming money to make the 3% payouts to prior investors, a form of fraud called a Ponzi scheme.
  — Logan Smith, CBS News, 28 Dec. 2025
• With the Ponzi scheme charges resolved, law enforcement turned their attention to the death of Michael Cochran and exhumed the body.
  — Steve Weisman, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2025
• Musk has also referred to Social Security as the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.
  — Alex Gangitano, The Hill, 14 Mar. 2025
• Allen compared the crypto industry to a Ponzi scheme that depends on bringing in more people to prolong high asset values.
  — Ronald J. Hansen, AZCentral.com, 9 June 2025
• Al Pacino has opened up about having to make drastic career changes at one point in his life after losing all his money in a Ponzi scheme.
  — Carly Thomas, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Oct. 2024
• The plan backfired, because Wilpon was investing in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
  — Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2023
• More recently, he was accused of criminal theft and fraud via a Ponzi scheme used to allegedly rip off the elderly to fund his lifestyle.
  — Jessica Bennett, VIBE.com, 15 Aug. 2024
• He is now accused of soliciting investors to the firm in what investigators call a massive Ponzi scheme.
  — Olivia Rubin, ABC News, 26 Feb. 2026
• This summer, the 73-year-old businessman was indicted on charges that his investment business was a Ponzi scheme.
  — Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2025
• The Bernie Madoff scandal is considered the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.
  — Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 16 Aug. 2025
• The scheme came to an end when a whistleblowing director tipped off the FBI that the company had become a Ponzi scheme.
  — Alexandria Burris, IndyStar, 13 Aug. 2025
• Rebollido’s not the first in South Florida to run a Ponzi scheme on MCA lies.
  — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 30 Nov. 2025
• In a Ponzi scheme, money provided by new investors is used to pay high returns to early-stage investors to suggest the enterprise is prosperous.
  — Lisa Rathke, Quartz, 29 Mar. 2024
• But when the initial concept struggled, the duo faked bank records and continued to woo investors, creating what eventually became a Ponzi scheme.
  — Sharon Bernstein, Sacramento Bee, 7 Jan. 2025
• He was charged in 2013 with tax fraud for filing an incorrect return tied to a Ponzi scheme operated by another man.
  — Nick Penzenstadler, USA Today, 10 Mar. 2026
• By the end of the year, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme had unravelled, leaving investors some sixty-five billion dollars poorer.
  — Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2023
• Myers also engaged in a Ponzi scheme by using new investors' funds to repay earlier investors, prosecutors said.
  — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 8 June 2026
• Law, who compares play-to-earn to a Ponzi scheme, has recently followed the footsteps of other Web3 games to shift to the mushier play-and-earn narrative.
  — Zinnia Lee, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2023
• Kevin Bacon made some rare comments about losing money in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in the 2000s.
  — Elizabeth Stanton, FOXNews.com, 6 Apr. 2025
• McMaster thanked the entire team involved in investigating the alleged Ponzi scheme.
  — Madeline Montgomery, CBS News, 1 Apr. 2026