<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>mherdeg</author><text>Ponzi schemes can operate in the open for a pretty long time.&lt;p&gt;As of late 2007 it was pretty clear that Agape World Inc. was a classic Ponzi scheme (see FatWallet forum thread full of promoters and onlookers patiently explaining the scam at &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20080503040727&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.fatwallet.com&amp;#x2F;forums&amp;#x2F;finance&amp;#x2F;780511&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;20080503040727&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.fatwal...&lt;/a&gt; ). They claimed to offer &amp;quot;commercial bridge loans&amp;quot;, which to a limited extent they actually did, though they were mostly paying investors other investors&amp;#x27; money.&lt;p&gt;They operated apparently with impunity throughout 2008 and the arrest wasn&amp;#x27;t until Jan 2009, with years of further criminal charges helping unravel the scam ( e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archives.fbi.gov&amp;#x2F;archives&amp;#x2F;newyork&amp;#x2F;press-releases&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;former-agape-world-inc.-owner-and-president-sentenced-to-25-years-imprisonment-for-multi-million-dollar-ponzi-scheme&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archives.fbi.gov&amp;#x2F;archives&amp;#x2F;newyork&amp;#x2F;press-releases&amp;#x2F;201...&lt;/a&gt; , &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.justice.gov&amp;#x2F;usao-edny&amp;#x2F;pr&amp;#x2F;largest-grossing-broker-agape-ponzi-scheme-sentenced-108-months-imprisonment&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.justice.gov&amp;#x2F;usao-edny&amp;#x2F;pr&amp;#x2F;largest-grossing-broker...&lt;/a&gt; ).&lt;p&gt;It was just fascinating to spend all of 2008 reading that forum thread being vividly suspicious that folks were being scammed in broad daylight for a year.</text><parent_chain><item><author>anm89</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a shame that the word Ponzi scheme is so abused that when I see something labled a Ponzi scheme my expectation is that it is not actually a Ponzi scheme.&lt;p&gt;Where as this is a real Ponzi scheme. The business was totally made up, and it was a front to get investor money to cycle to other investors:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;in fact, neither Horwitz nor 1inMM had ever sold any movie rights to, or done any business with, HBO or Netflix.&lt;p&gt;Crazy that people think they can get away with this stuff. Ponzi schemes seem guaranteed to blow up over a long enough time horizon.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>SEC Charges 1inMM Capital, LLC with Operating a $690M Ponzi Scheme</title><url>https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-58</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>Bukhmanizer</author><text>&amp;gt; Crazy that people think they can get away with this stuff. Ponzi schemes seem guaranteed to blow up over a long enough time horizon.&lt;p&gt;I just finished a podcast on Madoff, and I found myself wondering if he just assumed he would eventually get caught. The man lived like a literal king for like 40 years, and only got caught in his 70’s. It’s not a tradeoff that I would take, but I wonder if for some people, prison is the assumed endgame, and the goal is to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible.</text><parent_chain><item><author>anm89</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a shame that the word Ponzi scheme is so abused that when I see something labled a Ponzi scheme my expectation is that it is not actually a Ponzi scheme.&lt;p&gt;Where as this is a real Ponzi scheme. The business was totally made up, and it was a front to get investor money to cycle to other investors:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;in fact, neither Horwitz nor 1inMM had ever sold any movie rights to, or done any business with, HBO or Netflix.&lt;p&gt;Crazy that people think they can get away with this stuff. Ponzi schemes seem guaranteed to blow up over a long enough time horizon.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>SEC Charges 1inMM Capital, LLC with Operating a $690M Ponzi Scheme</title><url>https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-58</url></story>