1. Ruoqi Guo Cindy

2. Pyramid schemes, also known as rentier firms', started their operations in 1991. Their activity was based on obtaining a quantity of money and returning a greater amount based on a percentage.

3. Although apparently functioning as a bank, pyramids had no concrete investment from which to glean money and apparently did not lend. The first pyramid scheme, which opened in 1991, was that of Hajdin Sejdisë, who later fled to Switzerland with several million dollars of Albanian businessmen.

4. This scheme could no longer make payments when the number of investors grew, and those people included the vast majority of Albanians, who had been lured by get- rich-quick promises. The 1997 unrest in Albania was an uprising sparked by Ponzi scheme failures. The scheme was actually fronts for laundering money and dealing in weapons.

5. Beginning in February thousands of citizens gathered daily, asked government to compensate for their loss, which they suspected of profiting from the scheme. By March 1997, the protests had turned violent in the south, especially around the port city of Vlore (Vlora), where numerous residents armed themselves with weapons grabbed from army barracks.

6. On March 2 President Sali Berisha declared a state of emergency, but rioting and destruction spread throughout the country, gripping the capital, Tirana, for two weeks. Although the government quelled revolts in the north, in mid-March rebels still controlled towns in the south.

7. Fearing the spread of unrest outside Albania's borders, the United Nations on March 28 authorized a force of 7,000 to direct relief efforts and to restore order. In elections in June and July 1997, Berisha and his party were voted out of power, and all UN forces left Albania by August 11

8. Results: Citizens overthrew the government and 2,000 people were killed in this revolution.

9. http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/al pha/albania1997.htm http://www.google.com/search?hl=zh- CN&q=1997%20rebellion%20in%20Albania&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_p w.,cf.osb&biw=1284&bih=609&wrapid=tlif133635267451711&saf e=on&um=1&ie=UTF- 8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=6B- nT5nIAoa36QG55rDzBw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_rebellion_in_Albani a