Some still blindly believe

In a letter to editor of the Jamaica Gleaner of August 8, 2008, an OLINT supporter, if not investor, pleads for support of the beleaguered “Investment” Club. The writer, after rambling a bit, takes aim at the law of the land and the regulators who seek to uphold it.

Up until the authorities started their campaign to wipe out his business, he consistently delivered on his promise.

Are people still blaming the FSC, NCB, BOJ, BNS, Peter Bunting and Omar Davis and others for OLINT demise? It should be noted that the Jamaican authorities have not frozen anything, yet. If people had listened to the FSC, the debacle and tragedy that OLINT has become would have been significantly contained.

He mentions the OLINT foundation but what has the foundation been doing lately? Please note this is same the foundation to which MTI’s Jared Martinez was more than happy to put his money in, as a part of public (relations) support for David Smith. I hope the letter writer took note of the MTI AD.( See under related:)

The road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

The blind belief and bankrupt thinking is further evident in the following line:

I respect and support him based on his history of honesty. It is vital that people like David Smith survive in business, because he has the good of the people at heart and has proven himself not to be one of the greedy investors.

Firstly, what and where is the evidence of this honesty? A long list of broken promises? David Smith might have started with good intentions, but even if he did, something went wrong, very wrong. The writer should listen again to the Nationwide interview with the ‘troubled’ Peter Bovell. Re-visit the stories of the Walker’s and the Observer’s Al Edwards asking OLINT, where is the Money?

No place for certain business

Based on OLINT’s example, it is vital that companies that are anti-regulation, anti-transparency and anti-disclosure not be in business at all. They are a danger to investors, consumers and themselves.

You can read the rest of the letter here, In support of Olint(Jamaica Gleaner).

Related

• MTI AD says – Scams,Schemes, Scandals!
• Bovell: OLINT Refused to be transparent
• OLINT: Human Tragedy
• OLINT: Where is the Money?

Sage One: In Vision

And it came to pass that after buning a chalice full of calli weed The Sage One fell into deep meditation and a vision was revealed.

And beheld a small group of denizens who with gnashing of teeth called for brimstones and fire to rain down on he who used to be the Worshipped of The Day. For by now many months had passed since the great consolidation and manna (lint) still had not fallen from “O”enven.

And I speak unto them say “why art thou angry and not of good cheer?”

And they replied as one saying “yu no si di man tek wi moni and gawn?” I enquire of them why their numbers were so small to which they replied “Bwai a nuf piipl get rab but dem shame fi come public, dem no waan piipl si se dem fool fool”.

I enquired of their well being and was “bwai yu waan si di bank tek back di kyaar and wi affi a hide fram di bailiff”.

I the ask them “why did you not heed the warning of the Sage One who prophesied pain and suffering?”

To which they answered: “Yu waan si di money did yuu sweet when it did a run”.

Related

• Reflections by ‘Leminotep Jr’
• Sage One: Troubled Times

Sage One: Troubled Times

And so it was that the 7th month of the eight year of the third millennia became know as the Great Consolidation. For after all had been said, done, and debated, multitude did divideth into the Anti-linter and the Pro-linters and proceedeth to wait for what must be to be. It was a time when much preaching was done to the converted.

Dearly beloved I say unto thee, it was in the first year of the reign of Bruce the Prodigal aka Bruce the Ditherer that the Plus became Minus, Higgins disappeared without a Warner, paper Daisies failed to bloom, and there were no Lint to remove.

And in the camp of the Pro-linters the faithful gathered for a great prayer meeting. Verily I say unto thee, they sangeth sankeys and reciteth from the good book. The High Priestess “describe potion” and spake unto the faithful saying “Be still” to which her assistants chorused “Tek it easy nuh man”. And so it was that having strengthened their faith they proceeedeth on an indefinite bus ride.

From the back seat of the bus there came grumbling of bills to be paid and bailiffs to be eluded. Dearly beloved, did the Sage One not warn about great pain before he was banished from the bus and his saying deleted by the Guardian of Unreality?

Dearly beloved, it came to pass that the Worshipped of The Day did speak. After he had “hemmed” and “haamed” and said a lot without saying a thing, the future was no clearer. Verily some heard what was to be heard while others heard what they wanted to hear.

Mi gawn bun a chalice and meditate some more

Related

• Reflections by ‘Leminotep Jr’

Gleaner: UFOs time to Confess!

The Gleaner’s editorial of July 22, 2008 invites the Un-regulated Financial Organisations to come clean, a call we most certainly endorse.

It is high time that the so-called alternative investment schemes come clean, so that people can have a real sense of their financial circumstances and get on with the business of rebuilding their lives.

In another section of the article they take on OLINT.  This in after earlier in the article effectively suggesting that David Smith and OLINT was the ‘grand-daddy’ of alternative investment schemes. It might not be a fair assertion but that is what the editorial writer thinks. 

For several months, Smith has been unable to pay investors promised returns, with the blame shifting from one source to another: the actions of jealous Jamaican banks, which wanted to close its accounts; because of due diligence by foreign banks; the failure of foreign brokers to release cash because of investigations of one sort of another; and now, the freezing of Olint’s assets by the Turks and Caicos Islands’ police because of a probe into its business.

Later in the editorial, the writer attempts to tackle to inter-relationships between the schemes.

The suggestion here is that small operators like World Wise and May(Mae) Daisy and others sought to piggyback on Olint’s supposed experience and trading skills by parking a portion of their cash with David Smith’s business. The upshot: if David Smith fell into trouble, then so would they.

The meltdown, therefore, would be systemic, well beyond the regulatory issues faced by these organisations. Already, the problems with these institutions have begun to have a negative impact on consumption and will, over time, feed into the broader economy. It has already affected consumer and business confidence. By coming clean, the traders will cause investors to face reality.

Systemic or Sectoral? The article is worth reading although there might be questions about the accuracy of somethings said. 

Source: Time for investment companies to come clean

Related:

Reflections by ‘Leminotep Jr’

When it was first published elsewhere it was promptly deleted. It was later & published in the Jamaica Gleaner of April 26, 2008.

I have often wondered how the dear departed Leminotep would have addressed events. Please permit me space to make a feeble attempt in his style.

And it came to pass that in the third month of the eighth year of the third millennium, and in the first year of the reign of Bruce the Prodigal, story did come to bump in the land of the Jamdowners. Verily I say unto thee, multitudes were confounded when what could not have happened did happen.

Hear me oh Jamdowners

E’en in the great and mighty kingdom to the north did the plague spread when the purveyors of false hope and even the sellers of snake oil were captured following dawn operations at affluent addresses. Hear me oh Jamdowners at home and in the diaspora, many were they who experienced an epiphany akin to that of Saul on that Damascus road. Some, having repented of their transgressions against the laws of mathematics and economics, proceedeth to speak from both sides of their mouth.

Verily, in the days following the great calamity there were those who did confess to knowing known unknown, unknown unknowns and not knowing that they knew not. But among the multitudes were those who prophesied of certain destruction. Verily I say unto thee, it was written that those that have eyes should see and those that have ears should hear. Wise men went about the land, e’en in cyberspace warning the multitudes of the impending disaster.

Bad mind and collusion

Dearly beloved, I say unto thee, when story did come to bump, present were members of the drunken multitude. Armed with placards extolling the virtues of the chief purveyor of hope, they proceedeth to direct their wrath against agent of the state alleging bad mind and collusion with the keepers of deposits.

Hear me oh Jamdowners and Jamrockers, dreadlocks and baldheads, blower of trumpets and ringers of bells, get not thee complacent because more financial plague will befall the land. Was it not written that the fool and his riches shall soon part? Take thee heed of the laws of mathematics and economics and heed the words of their prophets. Listen not to the wolves wrapped in sheep garments ‘profit-sying’ of great returns to come. Great shall be the pain of the transgressors. Selah.

Truth can never be suppressed.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080426/letters/letters7.html

OLINT: Where is the Money?

Before you read this article please read What Happens to the Money in a Ponzi Scheme?

Al Edwards writing in the Jamaica Observer ask the question that people should be focusing on. Even If that ‘e-mail’ is fake, although some believe it is genuine, that is not the issue. The issue is where is the money. Here are some quotes from the man who authored the another article, two(2) months ago May 16, 2008 to be exact, “Olint at a Cross Roads”

Club members of popular foreign currency trading outfit Olint and indeed most of the country are preoccupied with two questions: Will people be able to recover their invested funds and what happened to all that money?

The article points to the fact that there will be no help form government, so club members have their options clearly cut out. The leader of the flock has been quiet and their has been no word of comfort.

In effect, club members will have no recourse other than OLINT for their money. So what does David Smith propose to do about it? His representatives have been strangely quiet, and he has not stood before his flock and calmed their nerves.

If that David Smith and his team is not providing any answers, it is clear that the club members need to be assembling their own high power legal team.

Excuses Dwindle

The author then turns to the rumours and like this writer the author points to the dwindling excuses. Rumours of that the prominent bank, NCB, clearly as they are the possibly the only bank with OLINT accounts if not the one with the main accounts.

Olint has not endeavoured to confirm the veracity of that statement, leaving NCB prudently to categorically state its position.Both the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and NCB made it clear earlier this week that they were not the ones preventing members encashing Olint cheques inferring that once members had cheques they could be cashed. The excuses were slowly being whittled away.

In another section, the writer tries to quietly suggest that maybe all was not well. 

It may also be the case that having paid out anticipated returns to his club members, and with no new money coming in; he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Then again, the question has been posed: Was he fully engaged in foreign currency trading, or were there detrimental lapses?

While the writer of the article is afraid to use the SCAM word or the PONZI word we are prepared to. The questions that should is really being asked was it bad management or was it a case of FX outfit that never was or a FX outfit turned PONZI. 

Goal Post Gone

Asking a local analyst for a comment, the analyst drew for a quote from the article, Olint at a Cross Roads, one that all well thing persons should consider.

“You summed it up earlier in that article, ‘Olint at the crossroads’, when you said if the goal posts keep moving a lot of people will get pissed-off. I’ve got the quote here on my desktop: ‘If David (Smith) does pay out everybody what he should rightfully pay them, then there will be a huge sigh of relief right across Jamaica. His reputation will be enhanced both professionally and personally. If he does not, he will be stigmatised as a charlatan and rendered a pariah. His fate lies in his own hands. His word, dare I say it, has to be his bond.’

“I think that about says it all, don’t you?”

The Goal Posts have shifted so many  times to the point where it now appears that the goal posts have been dismantled.   

The article is clearly worth reading, please read it, but  maybe answer is No Money No Deh

Source: Olint: What happened to all that money? (Jamaica Observer)

Related:

• Olint at the crossroads (Jamaica Observer)
• No Money No Deh

n.b. We will comment on the “e-mail” soon