Caritas (Ponzi Scheme) - History

History

The Caritas company, which organized the scheme, was founded by Ioan Stoica in April 1992 in Braşov as a limited liability company with just 100,000 lei (500 USD, or $828 in current terms) in capital. Caritas moved to Cluj-Napoca two months later. The deposits were initially small (2,000–10,000 lei), but later, the minimum initial deposit was 20,000 lei, while the maximum was 160,000 lei. At the beginning, only residents of Cluj were allowed to make a deposit, but starting summer 1993, all Romanian citizens were allowed to participate.

It labeled itself a "mutual-aid game" (hence the name "Caritas", meaning charity in Latin) which had the purpose of helping impoverished Romanians during the transition to capitalism and promised eight times the money invested in six months.

Caritas prospered with the help of the connection it had with the nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) and the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Gheorghe Funar, who welcomed this scheme and even helped it build credibility by renting them space in the Cluj town hall, appearing with Stoica in public and on television, and defending Caritas from attacks. Funar paid for space in the local newspaper to publish a list of the "winners" who would see their money multiply eightfold; the list was 44 pages per day less than a month before the scheme collapsed.