As pointed out above. The only thing that matters in a ponzi scheme is "The money collected from new investors are used as payment from earlier investors." You can frame it in any numerous ways but that is the end goal. And i believe someone said that Bernie Madoff was a victim...? He was the perpetrator of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes ever in the US, stealing billions of dollars from the wealthy and poor alike. Watch the movie, I lived it for too long working on wall street.