A Ponzi scheme (from Charles Ponzi USA 1920s) is an investment fraud.

The perpetrator pays a high return on "investments" to last months subscribers from the money collected by this months subscribers. There is no investment. Obviously it collapses in on itself eventually.

Bernard Madoff has been charged with operating one of these babies, with losses to the tune of $50B. yes, that’s a B not an M.

So the guy gets caught...

Mr Madoff told them [FBI] he knew why they were there, and there was "no innocent explanation".

He said he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing" and that "it's all just one big lie", and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme" ...

He told them he "paid investors with money that wasn't there", that he was "broke" and "insolvent", that it "could not go on" and he expected to go to jail.

Well, at least there aren’t the usual excuses and ego self-preservation.