Note: This original episode ran in 2020.Walter Schramm did everything right as an investor — at least according to the philosophy of Warren Buffett. So how come he lost a small fortune?In this episode, we look into an obscure government program that slurps up forgotten money. We hunt for money we might have left vulnerable and we try to figure out how it got there in the first place so we can tell you where to find the money you've misplaced too.Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
Hello, Planet Money listeners. This is Kenny Malone. We have a story today, one of our absolute favorite episodes that originally aired a few years back. But since then, there have been a few significant updates. So stick around to the end of the story to hear those. Here's the episode. This is Planet Money from NPR.
A few months ago, I heard about a guy who had a small fortune taken from him, Walter Schramm.
We got Walter on the phone to ask him about his missing money, and he was angry. But you should know that the angry version of Walter Schramm sounds like this.
It would have been nice, but I guess that's gone.
Walter is very chill. And ironically, it's that trait that both brought him a small fortune and cost him it.
Here's what happened. Walter is Italian, and in the late 90s, he had the brilliant idea to start a company selling Italian specialty products online largely to Americans.
like coffee machines, pasta machines, coffee, ice cream makers.
At first, it seemed like things were going really well. Except for that, around the same time, another online retailer launched. Amazon. Amazon. They were bigger, seemed to have endless money. They're not even worried about turning a profit at this point.
But this is not where things go south for Walter, really. It was unfortunate, sure, but to him, the Amazon thing was just another great investment opportunity.
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