You searched for: “mulched
mulched, mulcted
mulched (MULCH 'd) (verb)
To have covered something with sawdust, compost, etc. to keep weeds down, protect from temperatures, etc.: In the spring, Trudy mulched the garden to keep unwanted vegetation from growing.
mulcted (MULKT id) (verb)
1. Punished or fined for some offense, tort, or misdemeanor; penalized: The court mulcted the man for having lied about his car being stolen.
2. To have swindled someone or to have taken something by fraud, trickery, or deception: Bernard L. Madoff mulcted his victims of considerable amounts of money.

Ponzi schemes, named after Charles Ponzi, refers to situations where potential investors were mulcted by being wooed with promises of unusually large monetary returns that were usually attributed to the investment manager's superior skills or some secret knowledge.

Charles Ponzi was a fast-talking immigrant and college dropout, and his scheme, according to Mitchell Zuckoff, Ponzi’s biographer, rested on the eagerness of ordinary working people to benefit from the wealth they saw being generated around them as the economy recovered from World War I, which made it easier for them to be mulcted.

Mulct comes from French mulcter, "to fine, to punish" from Latin mulctare, altered from multare "to punish, to fine" from multa, "penalty, fine". The sense of "to defraud" is first recorded 1748.

Sometimes the lies that were told in court were perceived as having mulched the truth. When the judge realized that the accused had mulcted the public investors, she was determined that he should be mulcted, including being sent to prison.