Ivar Kreuger

“Ivar saw that Rockefeller was currently serving on more than 60 other boards. He was an ideal director because he was well-connected and far too busy to care about any details.”

“Listen, this plan would and did work. It was only the lying, the falsifying of his financial statements, and being overextended that caused his downfall. That, that's why I said it's like, it's not a clear Ponzi scheme. It was working.”

“The middle phone was fake. It was a non-working phone that Ivar could cause to ring by stepping on a button under the desk. He used it for two purposes. One, if you're visiting him and he wants to get you out of there, he'll, he'll step on the button. It rings…”

“From 1923 to 1929, Ivar tripled his funds raised from American investors, persuaded the New York Stock Exchange to list his securities, pulled even with JP Morgan as a leading lender to Europe by securing match monopolies in several countries, built a 125 room…”

“His charisma was not natural. He practiced lines. He practiced what he was going to say for hours, just like great actors do.”

“He took a signed copy of the contract to a stamp shop and ordered a rubber stamp that would produce a exact replica. He would obtain rubber stamps of official signatures for nearly all of his match deals.”

“That evening he threw a lavish party and introduced Rockefeller to numerous ambassadors. And I put ambassadors in quotation marks, ambassadors from various countries. Who actually were movie extras that he had hired for the night.”

“This guy literally invented the B-share, this dual class share system that is still used to this day.”

“And the main thing of his life and career is that too much finance ruined a legit business.”

“Before they get involved with Ivar, it's a seven decade old. It's a 70 year old company. By the time they're done, they are bankrupt and the partners are impoverished.”

“And when you give people fat, effortless money, they don't question things.”

“I think it's more fakery. I think he's completely acting. No, no doubt. He's under stress. He's going to wind up shooting himself. But this mania, this like, oh, I can't remember. I'm losing my mind being in pajamas. I don't trust it for a second.”

“I don't have in front of me, but I'm pretty sure from like 19, 22 to like 19 30, something like 25% of all the securities traded in America were for Ivar Kruger's companies.”