High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ivar Kreuger (Swedish pronunciation: , March 2, 1880 – March 12, 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908 Kreuger co-founded the construction company Kreuger Toll Byggnads AB which specialized in new building techniques. By aggressive investments and innovative financial instruments he built a global match and financial empire. Between the two world wars, he negotiated match monopolies with European and Central and South American governments, and finally controlled between two thirds and three quarters of the worldwide match production, and became known as the "Match King". Kreuger's financial empire was described by one biographer as a Ponzi scheme, based on the supposedly fantastic profitability of Kreuger's match monopolies. But this is not quite correct since in a Ponzi Scheme early investors are paid dividends from their own money or that of subsequent investors. Although Ivar Kreuger did...