C. C. Julian

Courtney Chauncey Julian, known as C. C. Julian, 1885 to 1934, was a Canadian-American oil promoter whose Julian Petroleum Company became one of the largest investment frauds of 1920s Southern California. What began as an oil-production venture shifted toward selling stock once Julian found share sales more profitable than drilling, and he sustained payouts to investors by continually issuing new stock in a Ponzi-style scheme that defrauded investors of an estimated 100 to 200 million dollars, worth nearly 3 billion dollars in 2019 terms. He fled the United States to avoid prosecution and died by an intentional overdose in Shanghai in 1934.