Pulse Rights Issue oversubscribed

Investors seem to be finding real value in Pulse’s stock. Pulse investments is reporting that their latest Rights Issue, which was opened to shareholders on record as of May 5, 2008, has been oversubscribed. The Rights Issue closed on Monday May 26, 2008. On offer were 18 million shares at $7 dollars per share.  According to the report, 20.2 million  shares were bought.

The money raised from the share offer will according to Pulse be used to 

1. Refurbish Villa Ronai
2. Expand their overseas operations
3. Develop new interactive website
4. New traflagar storage facility
5. Peter Tosh Museum project

The share price for Pulse Investments closed at $7.00 and year-to-date the stock price is up a whopping 169.23%.

Source:  Pulse raises $120 mil from share offer

TCIFX.Com no longer points to Lewfamclub.com

Earlier this morning we discovered that tcifx.com was pointing to lewfamclub.com. However, it appear that things have changed and it no longer is happening. The domain tcifx.com now reports the following error, “Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)”.

What we do know is that tcifx.com domain name is owned by  the same company responsible for the development of lewfamclub.com and possibly the same persons responsible from the back-end of Olint.

Related: 

• TCI FX now Lewfam? (updated)

TCI FX now Lewfam? (updated)

There is an interesting development in the Olint,Lewfam and TCI FX saga. A few days ago, a visit to tcifx.com would have lead to a page saying “Under Construction”, today a visit shows that TCI FX is now LewFam Investments. This is very interesting as the tcifx.com now points to the same address as lewfamclub.com.

LewFam and Olint have a history going back. They shared the same location, if not office space, at the time when the FSC raided the Olint  in March of 2006. We also know that TCI FX Limited was or still is a partnership involving David Smith and a John Wildish according to TCI FX prospectus. This indeed a interesting development.

Here is a little about TCI FX Traders, from a prospectus 

“The Fund TCI FX TRADERS LTD (“the Fund” or “the Company”) is an open ended investment company incorporated in the Turks and Caicos Islands on August 16th 2006 and subject to the laws of the TCI. It is established for the purpose of investing through OLINT TCI which is a FX Trading entity, with the object of obtaining constant above average absolute return through a disciplined investment approach. No person has been authorized to make any representation concerning the Fund which are inconsistentwith or in addition to those contained in the Prospectus and the Directors accept no responsibility for anyrepresentations so made. The Fund will only accept investments which have been applied for on the Fund Agreement Form accompanying this Prospectus.” 

The prospectus goes on to say 

 “This Prospectus is based on the law and practice currently in force in the Turks and Caicos Islands at the date hereof, and is subject to the laws because OLINT TCI operates under the jurisdiction of the Turks and Caicos Islands.”

For the period Jan – April 2008, TCI FX traders reported the following returns

• Jan:  -00.96%
• Feb: +0.00%
• Mar: +01.87%
• Apr: -16.26%

In contrast the reported returns for Olint/Olint TCI were as follows

• Jan: +11.44%
• Feb: +7.57%
• Mar: +16.04% 
• April + 5.39%* 

Update: Later on Friday May 30, 2008 we discovered that the domain name tcifx.com no longer points to lewfamclub.com. Please see related article.

REIT IPO take up slow

The Carlton Savannah’h IPO has so far had a lukewarm response. Up until Wednesday of this week brokers have reported that things have been slow.

The Jamaica Gleaner Reports,

Brokers yesterday said that take-up of the J$1.254 billion initial public offering (IPO) by a Jamaican-based real-estate investment fund has so far been slow, but that offer could still prove a major success by the time it closes on Friday.

“There has been a lot of enquiries, but the uptake has been low,” an analyst at one brokerage house told Wednesday Business.

On the radio and other media, the ads promoting the offer have picked up. It will interesting to see what the how the take-up will turn out.

The offer closes on Friday May 30, 2008 at 4:00 p.m.

Source:

• Carlton Savannah Offer to Pick Up

Forex to Ponzi Part 2

Roberts claimed that the returns from Forex Trading was good. The interest paid to “investors” ranged between 4% to a high of 10%. In the USA, he even shared with them the historical data to prove it. Investors were asked to send money overseas to an investment account in Costa Rica, where he also had operations, but from time to time he used accounts in the USA, Switzerland and Belize.

 James Blackman Roberts , the man behind FOMAC International Inc. an alleged FOREX trading club that became a PONZI, eventually pleaded guilty. Here are more details.

A Heber Springs man who held himself out as an investor of other people’s money, leading to losses of more than $44 million, has pleaded guilty in federal court in Little Rock to a felony charge of wire fraud.

James Blackman Roberts, 70, admitted to U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright on Wednesday that he had devised and participated in a scheme to obtain money by false or fraudulent pretenses in connection with trading in foreign securities, said Jane Duke, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Roberts, operating at times as FOMAC International Inc. and Consultores Las Tres Americas S.A., engaged in online buying and selling of currency.

Duke said Roberts would present investors with promotional material claiming an investment program would “give the small working-class depositor the opportunity to take advantage of the attractive high yields possible … and realize a steady monthly income to supplement his or her regular income or retirement income.”

He would later provide investors with false historical data reflecting monthly returns to investors ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent, and annual returns of 48 percent to 120 percent, Duke said.

She said Roberts instructed investors to wire money to a specific investment account in Costa Rica, but he also used accounts in the United States, Switzerland and Belize.

“Losses to the investors are estimated at this time in excess of $44 million,” Duke said.

Heber Springs man guilty in fraud case -From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Look out for part 3 where we look at  the operations in Costa Rica.

Related:

• Forex to Ponzi Part 1

Micheal Lee-Chin’s Investment pays off

When Micheal Lee-Chin bought NCB I am not sure he dreamt that  in six-years his investment would pay off so quickly.  The Observer presents a very interesting peice worth reading

Yesterday, National Commercial Bank’s (NCB’s) share price closed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) four cents lower than the day before. But for Michael Lee Chin, the price of $23.94 a share was more than seven times the price he would have paid per share back in 2002 when he bought a majority stake in the bank.

How much did he purchase NCB for in 2002?

Lee Chin bought a75 per cent stake in NCB back in 2002 for US$127 million (J$6 billion in 2002), of which US$56 million (J$2.65 billion) was made as a downpayment.

How much did he actually pay down to purchase his stake in NCB?

Considering that only J$2.65 billion was paid down, earnings from dividends and share sales would have taken care of the rest of payments that were made in tranches over the years following 2002, reflecting an even higher return on his initial investment.

The discussions will rage whether or not it was a good deal for Jamaica but for Micheal Lee-Chin, the deal has more paid off.

Source: NCB deal eightfold

World Wise injunction extended

The injunction against RBTT closing World Wise’s accounts has been extended. The Supreme Court granted a 7-day extension which ends on June 4, 2008.

World Wise is fighting to keep its accounts open after RBTT advised them that they were going to closed their accounts

Related

• World Wise injunction against RBTT expires today
• World Wise at odds with RBTT

Silence on the Olint’s case against NCB

Almost one week later, we are yet to hear when the the ruling on injunction granted by the courts prevented NCB from closing OLINT’s banking accounts would be available. In meanwhile a lot has been happening in OLINT’s world.

The David Smith led OLINT outlined new procedures and policies. The procedures first outlined that persons needed to update their online profile. Those that had made request for withdrawals via e-mail needed to complete the request online and ensure that the request made matched the request made via email or else their claims would not be processed. It appears only OLINT members received the notification and that OLINT TCI members will soon be notified.

Later OLINT released their new encashment policy that members must be signed by May 31, 2008 if they intend to remain members of the Club. In that policy, OLINT outlined new terms, In summary,

• limit on the number of accounts, joint or single, on which and account holder’s name can appear to 3
• limit on the number of withdrawals per month
• withdrawals categories and the respective waiting periods that varied from 30-105 days.
• discretionary limit where if withdrawals for the month exceed more that 25% of funds under management enchashments payments could be reduced and in practice denied.
• emergency rules governing withdrawals for medical reason etc. 

The “25% rule”, is significant and could prove problematic.

1. Given that OLINT does not release audited financial statements, no one will really know whether or not that limit has been broken. Who will be able to actually independently verify that the 25% has been broken.
2. It could become the source of a legal challenge, as members could demand to be shown evidence, independently, that the 25% limit has indeed be broken given that have a written contract.

Club members should consider carefully and get legal advice on this one.

On May 21, we should have heard when the ruling on injunction would be available. We are still waiting on the courts.

Related: Olint and NCB back in Court