Madam Speaker, looking back to 1920 and Charles Ponzi in the United States, he had collected $10 million from 10,000 investors by selling promissory notes that claimed to pay 50% profit in 45 days. That seems to be a pretty hefty amount. When the scheme was exposed, the Boston bank collapsed and investors lost most of their money. Indications are that in July 1920, he was taking in about $1 million a week. He made an arrangement with the bank to deposit the funds.
The bank itself, Hanover officials soon realized that Ponzi was not paying his initial investors with interest income but with the deposits of the new investors. Nevertheless, the bank eagerly sold Ponzi a large amount of its stock. The bank officials knew he was doing something wrong, and yet they let him in as an investor in their bank.
Interestingly enough, Ponzi declared bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy court ordered all of the people who had been paid by Ponzi during the life of the scheme to return the proceeds to the bankruptcy trustee who distributed the money on a pro rata basis to all of the victims. Ponzi himself was eventually convicted of fraud in both state and federal courts and imprisoned for several years.
Even then, way back in 1920 there was some restitution made but it was done through the bankruptcy court, not through a law like this one.