Great frauds in history: Gregor MacGregor

Gregor MacGregor's dodgy scheme selling bonds in a fictional Latin American utopia saw his investors lose all their money while he retired to Venezuela on a comfortable pension.

Gregor MacGregor © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

(Image credit: Gregor MacGregor © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Gregor MacGregor (born 1786) served in the British Army, rising to the rank of major before being forced to resign in 1811 as the result of a fight with a superior officer. After the death of his wife later that year he joined the Venezuelan army in that country's fight for independence from Spain. He later fell out with independence leader Simon Bolivar and so moved to London in 1820, announcing that he had been made the Cazique (tribal chief) of Poyais, a new country in Central America. He then proceeded to sell £200,000 (£17.9m) worth of bonds in the government of the new country.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri