Size
The size of the scheme is under debate. Estimates vary between two and eight million depositors. The number most commonly quoted in the Romanian newspapers is four million, while the international newspapers tended to estimate their number to two or three million. In Autumn 1993, the list of names to be paid on a certain day as published in a Transylvanian newspaper included 22,000 names, which suggests that there were 660,000 depositors at one time.
Dan Pascariu, a banker and the chairman of Bancorex, estimated that between 35% and 50% of Romanian households were involved in the scheme. Mugur Isărescu, the president of the National Bank of Romania, estimated that it held a third of Romania's banknotes at one point.
An estimate of Romanian newspaper România Liberă gives the amount of money involved as 1.4 trillion lei or about 20% of the 1993 expenditures of the Romanian government of 6.6 trillion. The New York Times estimated the scheme attracted between $1 billion and $5 billion.
Read more about this topic: Caritas (Ponzi Scheme)
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