- Dona Branca
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María Branca dos Santos, more commonly referred to as "Dona" Branca (1902 – 1992) was a Portuguese criminal known chiefly for maintaining a Ponzi scheme in Portugal between 1970 and 1984 that paid a ten percent monthly interest. During this time she became popularly known as "The people's banker".
Dona Branca was arrested in 1984, and in 1988 she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.[1] She was one of the last inmates of Convento das Mónicas when it was dismantled in 1989.
In 1993 RTP created a telenovela titled A Banqueira do Povo ("The People's Banker") based on these events with Eunice Muñoz playing the role of the title character, in this case Doina Benta.
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External links
Con artists by century of birth 17th century William Chaloner
18th century 19th century Alves dos Reis · Philip Arnold · Nicky Arnstein · Lou Blonger · Helga de la Brache · John R. Brinkley · Ed "Big Ed" Burns · Cassie Chadwick · Horace de Vere Cole · Louis Enricht · Arthur Furguson · Lord Gordon-Gordon · Oscar Hartzell · Bertha Heyman · Canada Bill Jones · Henri Lemoine · Victor Lustig · William McCloundy · Phillip Musica · George C. Parker · Charles Ponzi · Death Valley Scotty · Soapy Smith · Titanic Thompson · William Thompson · Eduardo de Valfierno · Joseph Weil
20th century Alan Conway · Dona Branca · Bernard Cornfeld · David Hampton · Konrad Kujau
Alive today Frank Abagnale · Tino De Angelis · Du Jun · David "Race" Bannon · Matthew Cox · Marc Dreier · Solomon Dwek · Billie Sol Estes · Peter Foster · Kevin Foster · Robert Hendy-Freegard · Christian Gerhartsreiter · Mark Hofmann · James Hogue · Norman Hsu · Clifford Irving · Samuel Israel III · Sante Kimes · Russell King · Bon Levi · Bernard Madoff · Matt the Knife · Sergei Mavrodi · Barry Minkow · Richard Allen Minsky · Semion Mogilevich · Lou Pearlman · Tom Petters · Peter Popoff · Scott W. Rothstein · Steven Jay Russell · Michael Sabo · Casey Serin · Allen Stanford · Omid Tahvili · Kevin Trudeau · Sholam Weiss
Confidence trick · List of confidence tricks (in books and literature · in television and movies) · Fictional con artists Categories:- Portuguese fraudsters
- Pyramid and Ponzi schemes
- 1902 births
- 1992 deaths
- Portuguese prisoners and detainees
- Prisoners and detainees of Portugal
- Portuguese people stubs
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