The Substack Ponzi
Tyler Bossetti built a huge social media following. His secret: 30% investment returns.
This Week In Blunders – April 5-11
“It takes two to lie: One to lie and one to listen.” – Homer Simpson
Tyler Bossetti’s Substack still boasts more than 59,000 subscribers. Maybe it’s because he bills himself as an expert on everything.
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Maybe it’s because he already had a huge audience on other platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, and a podcast called “All For Nothing.”
Or maybe it’s because he promised investors he could deliver 30% returns.
He took in $23 million by wooing his social media audiences with what appears to be a lot of bluster and blather.
On Friday, Bossetti, 31, of Columbus, Ohio, received a six-year prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme and committing tax fraud through his purported real estate investment company, Boss Lifestyle.
The name of his company should have been the first clue because the money went to his fund his lifestyle. Prosecutors say this included a downtown condo, frequent travel, a $150,000 Mercedes SUV and, of course, cryptocurrency investments.
More than 140 victims testified at his sentencing, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
You know the scene: Cancer patients, veterans, public servants, ordinary working people – all trying to keep breathing in a corporate economy stacked on top of them.
According to the newspaper’s report:
“One of Bossetti’s victims, Ryan Clark, spoke on behalf of himself, his brother – a firefighter, and his father – a retired police officer who lost his pension.
“We all invested in this bulls---,” Clark, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan, said.
“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about bankruptcy,” he said. “We live in constant fear that the next bill won’t be able to be paid.”
And to think Bossetti once reportedly boasted more than a million followers on Instagram.
I have grown old writing about Ponzi schemes yet I never stop marveling at how easily they persist. They’re run by huge corporations. They’re run by one-man bucket shops. They’re run by overconfident douche bags.
Read More: 15 Tales Of Lost Ponzi Riches (Blunder Lists)
“Hubris drove a lot of this offense,” Bossetti’s attorney told the court. “This is not a case where Mr. Bossetti set up a Ponzi scheme to purposely bilk people out of money. It’s a legitimate business that went, predictably, south.”
But Ponzi schemes are always a triumph of salesmanship over actual investing prowess. That’s how their lies begin.
I sometimes count their ubiquity as a sign that all is not right with our blithe acquiescence to unchecked capitalism.
Take it from Bossetti who fancies himself a bit of a spiritual guru.
“God’s signs are not always the ones we want,” he wrote in his Substack, “but they’re always the ones we need.”
Trumpflation kills consumer sentiment
Consumer sentiment hit a record low, as measured by the University of Michigan’s venerable monthly survey on Friday. A lot of the fear comes down to one word: Inflation.
Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 3.8% in March to 4.8%, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, the latest actual reading on inflation, which also came out on Friday, showed it surging to 3.3%, as measured by the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index.
So now the 12-month CPI is at its highest level since those dreadful Biden days – April 2024.
“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One.” Donald Trump boldly promised while campaigning in August 2024.
But since taking office, he’s mostly blamed Biden for inflation. He’s also made more inflationary moves, like wars and tariffs, than he has moves to bring prices down.
Read More: Trumpflation (Business Blunders, January 2025)
Trump also promised to stay out of wars, but the latest spike in inflation is mostly due to sharply rising oil prices from his bombing of Iran.
The average national price for a gallon of gas was below $3 before the war. Today it’s $4.16, according to AAA.
“Energy is going to bring us back,” Trump also promised on the campaign trail. “That means we’re going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.”
Um … gee .. all those prices are up, sir. But thank you for your leadership.
Trump is currently losing the war on inflation and the latest consumer sentiment survey shows that the people who have to pick up the tabs know it.
“Many consumers blame the Iran conflict for unfavorable changes to the economy,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director.
Consumers may not fully understand the economic abstractions found in CPI reports, but they do understand the gas station signs they drive past each day.
Happy tax day to the little people
Hotel heiress Leona Helmsely was reviled in the 1980s for saying “only the little people pay taxes.” But, let’s face it. She was on to something.
Read More: Leona Helmsley – Helmsley Hotels (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
When they’re not hiding assets offshore, or borrowing against their assets to avoid income taxes, billionaires pay a 24% effective tax rate, according to a paper published in August by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
That’s compared to 30% for all of us little people who need the money more.
Don’t worry, though. One of these days, it’s going to trickle down. Trickle.
Read More: Tax Time For A Dead Billionaire (Business Blunders)
The Dirty White Knight
Ricard Whitney preached self-regulation for the stock market. He could not even regulate himself. Read More: Richard Whitney – New York Stock Exchange (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
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