After the initial investors were paid off, Harvard would reap 10 percent of the profits.
Instead, analysts say, the initial investors are likely to get less than a dime for each dollar they put up.
He started eToys with $900,000 from 35 initial investors.
Accusations that the initial investors had received insider information about the mine's status were never proved.
For an initial investor in his fund, invested capital would have grown 85 times as of earlier this year.
Ripley and his wife formed a joint stock company in 1841 along with 10 other initial investors.
The project made a lot of money for its top people and its initial investors.
The recession of 1873 caused a few initial investors to withdraw from the settlement plans.
"But the commercial success did not meet the expectations of the initial investors."
It used around $22m worth of the paper to pay off initial investors but only raised about £6 million by selling the remaining stock.