Stage
(in Cycles)

Get $

Get $ (total)

Recruited

Total
Involved

Losers

% Losers

Founding 

1 

1 

14 

15 

14 

93.3 

1st 

2 

3 

16 

31 

28 

90.3 

2nd 

4 

7 

32 

63 

56 

88.9 

3rd 

8 

15 

64 

127 

112 

88.2 

4th 

16 

31 

128 

255 

224 

87.8 

5th 

32 

63 

256 

511 

448 

87.7 

6th 

64 

127 

512 

1023 

896 

87.5 

7th 

128 

255 

1,024 

2,047 

1,792 

87.5 

8th 

256 

511 

2,048 

4,095 

3,584 

87.5 

9th 

512 

1,023 

4,096 

8,191 

7,168 

87.5 

10th 

1,024 

2,047 

8,192 

16,383 

14,336 

87.5 

11th 

2,048 

4,095 

16,384 

32,767 

28,672 

87.5 

12th 

4,096 

8,191 

21,768 

65,535 

57,344 

87.5 

13th 

8,192 

16,383 

65,536 

131,071 

114,688 

87.5 

14th 

16,384 

32,767 

131,072 

262,143 

229,376 

87.5 

15th 

32,768 

65,535 

262,144 

524,287 

458,752 

87.5 

16th 

65,536 

13,1071 

524,288 

104,8575 

917,504 

87.5 

17th 

131,072 

262,143 

1,048,576 

2,097,151 

1,835,008 

87.5 

18th 

262,144 

524,287 

2,097,152 

4,194,303 

3,670,016 

87.5 

19th 

524,288 

1,048,575 

4,194,304 

8,388,607 

7,340,032 

87.5 

Scheme begins with one person assembling 2 below and 4 below them. They recruit 8 paying members. 1 gets money, 14 have not gotten money, total of 15 are involved. One "winner" is 93.3% of tatal.

Group then splits and each of the two groups now each recruits 8 more people or 16 total. 2 more people have now been paid, a total of 3.
31 people are now involved.
28 have not yet gotten any money, or a total of 90.3%.

After this, the scheme progresses and soon settles out at a pattern of 87.5% of all who have ever participated being in losing positions. That percentage will remain for as long as the scheme continues. The longer it runs, the percent remains constant but the total number of losers grows geometrically. At just the 20th level, there will be over 7 million losers. With each investing $5,000, that would be $35 billion in losses!!!