'Cazique' Gregor MacGregor, the Man Who Fabricated a Country

Criminalia

Shondaland Audio and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Poyais: a magical place, and the picture of Caribbean paradise. And according to Scottish swindler Gregor MacGregor, it could all be yours … if you invested in his land, Poyais. In the early 19th century, MacGregor invented his own country, and then conned investors into buying the bonds of a country that did not exist.

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0:00.0	Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
0:08.2	Who is the picture of Paradise?
0:18.2	It was a magical place.
0:19.8	The water was, quote, so pure it could quench any thirst.
0:24.2	And as if that weren't enough, chunks of gold lined the riverbeds.
0:28.6	The trees were ripe with fruit, and the soil was so fertile that a farmer could have
0:33.2	three maize harvests a year, or grow cash crops such as sugar or tobacco without hardship.
0:39.6	This, according to Scottish Swindler Gregor McGregor, could all be yours.
0:45.2	If you considered investing in his property, located it in present-day Honduras.
0:50.2	He knew about Poeas, you see, because he was, he claimed, the Cazep of the nation.
0:54.8	A figure similar to a native chief in other Spanish-speaking nations nearby, and for what
0:59.7	it's worth, similarly spelled as well.
1:03.2	In the early 1820s, Gregor ran one of history's most successful and imaginative cons.
1:09.6	He invented his own country, and then conned investors into buying the bonds of a country
1:13.8	that did not exist.
1:15.8	Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Mariette Markey.
1:18.8	And I'm a Holly Frye.
1:20.7	Poeas lacked McGregor-stated, were willing investors and settlers to develop it,
1:26.4	and leverage its resources to their fullest.
1:29.4	British investments in South America, which, by the way, at this point, was this catch-all
1:33.9	term for what is now Latin America.
1:36.0	Everything that was not the United States, essentially, South.
	...

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