Great frauds in history: Philip Musica AKA "Dr Coster"

On the surface “Dr Coster” appeared to be a successful businessman, but in reality he was skimming money from his medical supplies company.

Philip Musica was born in New York City in 1884 and dropped out of school at the age of 14 to help out at his father’s grocery store. Within two years he was in charge, handing everyday operations to his younger brother while he set about undercutting competitors by dodging tariffs on imports. Thus began a three decade career as a swindler. He had two spells in jail for bribery and forgery in 1909 and 1913, getting his second sentenced commuted by volunteering to work as a government agent during World War I. In this period he changed his identity several times, eventually settling on Dr F. Donald Coster, and founding the Adelphi Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company, as a front for bootlegging. By 1926 he had made enough money to buy McKesson & Robbins, a struggling consumer-medicine firm.

What was the scam?

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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.

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