On this day one hundred years ago Scott Dillingham was arrested in Dallas, Texas.
Dillingham was an Asheville, North Carolina, used car salesman and his arrest made the papers in Asheville not because of those old clunkers but because of the money he was supposed to have gotten his hands on. He was alleged to have misappropriated between $50,000 and $160,000, depending on the source.
Sam Argentar, an Asheville jeweler, had sworn out a warrant on Mr. Dillingham, charging him with stealing several diamonds. It was on this warrant that Dillingham was arrested in Texas.
He had originally been arrested in Asheville the previous summer, but in August had fled, skipping a $10,000 bail.
He also had a warrant out for his arrest from Pennsylvania for passing a bad check. In all, he faced 38 charges.
Known as “Asheville’s Ponzi” for the man for whom the Ponzi scheme was named, his business, “Scott Dillingham, Used Car Dealer, Aeroplane and Taxicab Service,” had gone into bankruptcy while he was on the run.
He was brought back to Asheville, where he was tried and convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses and placed on a $5000 bond.
On February 18, 1922, Scott Dillingham announced that he was assuming the management of the Western Carolina Automobile Exchange, a new shop at 63 Biltmore Avenue, planning a “U-Drive-Em” service, and washing, storing and repairing cars in addition to selling used ones.
This wasn’t the end of “Asheville’s Ponzi,” however. In years to come he was involved in violation of North Carolina’s Blue Laws, selling unregistered stocks without a license, and of violating federal bail bond laws after moving to Florida. It was that last one that caused him to flee the country for Cuba, where the Cuban secret police arrested and deported him to Key West in 1934. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in the federal penitentiary.
