Holding my Breath 2

When I posted the previous entry, I wasn't quit done yet. As it contained a bit of pleasant news I didn't want to taint it by including it with this posting.

To begin with: the Edwafin site is down. Now, that may be to do maintenance on the site, or perhaps things are changing so quickly, that it needs repeated revision. Let's face it, they have removed all the pictures from their site - Edwafin has become faceless. Not that I could add more pictures, though, the blog-server has informed me that I have used up my allocation. Thus, no more prity pictures of Edwafin and its human population; and I so much wanted to include one of Ms Cowan. Perhaps if Marc (FIN24) has found a picture, I will erase one of the many of old Patrick to make room for her. While we are at it, you wouldn't have one of Brian Poliah as well, would you?

Except for two short, curt sentences - each in a separate email - from Patrick, they are as quiet as their bank account. Because of their synoptic character I did not think is necessary to publish the whole email here. The one said:

My wife does not drive a brand new Merc, you are mixing fact and fantasy in your spite.

And the other one said:

So you broke your word

Well, now, we have come to know Patrick as a man of a few words, especially when it comes to providing information or speaking the truth, and this is no exception.

Let me categorically state: Patrick's wife does not drive a new Mercedes. It only is very shiny and looks new, but that does not imply that it is. My informer must have it wrong.

Yes, I did not wait until 31 May, as it became evident, that the masters of Edwafin were not going to refund their investors in any case. When I pressed Patrick on this he refused to respond:
20090325 Email Respond to Stapleton 1

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Shame on you, Patrick for being so selective in your arguments.

That brings me to a matter I have been pondering for a few hours now.

There might be investors who are frowning on the actions I'm taking in respect of Edwafin, and they have all the right to do so. Obviously, it might put pressure on Edwafin and its subsidiaries. However, if they are not in financial difficulties, they could easily overcome my arguments by proving me wrong. That would make a fool of me and make their case so much stronger, and everybody would be paid his/her due. I don't mind looking the fool if that happened!

On the other hand, if my supposition is correct that they are essentially bankrupt, then every week that we let pass means that they will spend more and more money on directors salaries and other expenses - at our cost.
In the mean time they will continue roping in gullible investors that might just end up in the same situation as we are. And that for a few months more interest payments, we hope, and possibly/hopefully a recovery that would allow them to cover our investments. Has anybody out there seen the balance sheets of Edwafin recently? I wonder.

Let's be realistic about it. Except for loud protestations stating that they are not bankrupt, they haven't shown investors there financial statements, or have made any attempts to proof that they are not - words, words, words, words.
In reality they have admitted that they are bankrupt, by actually telling us so on 19 December 2008:

CERTAIN INVESTORS, DUE TO THEIR WORRY AND CONCERN, HAVE LEVIED THREATS AGAINST US, WHICH THEY ARE WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT (AND OF COURSE WE DO UNDERSTAND HOW THEY FEEL). HOWEVER WE NEED TO MENTION THAT IN TAKING THE MATTER FURTHER BY GOING PUBLIC OR INSTIGATING ANY OTHER FORM OF ACTION AGAINST THE COMPANY, WOULD NOT ONLY PUT YOUR CAPITAL IN JEOPARDY, BUT THE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS OF ALL OUR CLIENTS WILL SIMULTANEOUSLY BE PUT AT RISK.

Now, isn't that a beautiful encapsulation, if clumsy at best, of the status quo, Edwafin's attitude, and the company's financial health.

Usually I have a cash flow problem, when I don't have money to pay for things - perhaps Edwafin is different. Tutt, tutt, tutt, Patrick, have we been talking ourselves into a corner again? Below is a copy of part of a brochure used to entice me to invest with Edwafin:
Brochure

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Holding our Breath I

Today is an exciting day, and I've been trying to hold my breath ever since I woke up this morning. Alas, it is nearly 13:00H and I don't know if I can hold on much longer!!

Yes today is Edwafin pay day. You see, when they installed the multi-million Rand computer system to facilitate better payment of interests to investors, they also moved the payment date to the last day of the month. It is hilarious, but that never happened and payday was moved on ad infinitum. Anyway, we have some daylight left before the day finally comes to and end - just keep my breath a little longer.

There are about 4000 investors who are holding their breath today.

Yesterday was a rubbish day. I uploaded the promised documents to my website, and while there also did a security upgrade of the operating system. The whole thing promptly crashed, and I spend until 19:00h in an effort to fix it. The good news is that the site is back up, and the promised prospectuses may be downloaded from this link (prospectuses). You are of course also welcome to peruse the other pages of my little kingdom.

FIN24 is also running with the story, and you can go a n look at it here or In My Cape Town.

There was some good news, though, from the FSB (Financial Services Board). They weren't still on holiday, and early yesterday I received a friendly email from officials at the FSB. Since then they have asked for copies of all the documents, and have even been on the phone with me a few times. Excellent work and many thanks to them for giving this matter their attention:
20090330 Response From the FSB

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FIN24, FSB, NPA and Documents

FIN24
Marc Ashton of FIN24 visited me this morning. He is a very nice, and intelligent young man who appears very sincere and wise.

Marc will in future be following the Edwafin story on FIN24, and has invited anybody who would like to share information or experiences to email him at marca@fin24.com, or to call him on his cell phone: 082-561-1585. Perhaps Marc will also remember to see if he can find a photograph of Carole Gardiner in their files - it would give one such a feeling of completeness to have them all in focus; a happy family.

Documents
Then, I have made all the documents that are included in this blog public and downloadable. Thanks to modern technology, that took merely a few clicks of the mouse button. There are a few documents in my possession that have not yet been published yet, and these include the copies of the prospectuses that I have managed to obtain. They are for the debenture series, C and D (what an adventure it was to obtain those!). I would like to offer copies of these prospectuses to any who would like to have them - even if your debentures are part of another issue, it may be handy to know that the contents of the prospectuses are mostly the same.
Unfortunately, these are hefty documents and cannot be transferred to the Scrib server, but what I will do is scan them and place them on my own website at www.chromatique.com. On the left hand side of the page, on the main menu there you will find the "Free Download" tab, just follow that and you will arrive at a category called "Edwafin" (how else), follow that and you will be able to download the documents that are available there. I will try and make some direct links available as the documents are uploaded to the server.
You might want to go there again in the future, as I might make available more documents as they become available.

FSB
Once before I tried to contact the FSB to see if they would be prepared to investigate the Edwafin story, and I have noticed that others have approached them as well. To date nobody seems to have had any response from them. Perhaps they have not yet realized that the holidays are over, and that a new year already started a few months ago.

I wrote another email, today and we shall see.... In any case I have added the Liason Director, Mr Russel Michaels to the email list for new postings on this blog, and let's hope that some response will be forthcoming. One should keep in mind that they should be well aware of the situations, as Mr Stapleton (CEO: Edwafin) told me some time ago that the authorities had been informed. Nevermind, though, we should keep in mind that our little Republic has many empty offices, identifiable by the customary acronyms, dotted around the country, that they possibly did not inform the correct authorities. This would never be known as information provided by Edwafin, as per usual is prity scant.

Perhaps, I may suggest one thing (amongst many others) that the FSB might want to investigate: old Patrick told me once that he had invested R10,000,000.00 in Edwafin, and let's say that he is frugal in giving himself an interest rate, no not 25%, not 20%, not 18% but only the basic 15%. That means he would receive a monthly interest of R125,000.00, and we are not talking of the interest received by other family members and colleagues. I think that I as investor would already feel som much better if they treated themself with the same restrictive measures as they do us. I am actually sure they do, but it would be nice to know for sure.

National Prosecuting Authority
An email was also written to the NPA - very famous in South Africa and I explained the Edwafin investors problems to them. Especially, the fact that the company is illegally keeping our money. We'll see what they make of it. Perhaps one's hopes should not rise to high, as they suggest that one uses the call centre, and call centres and me just don't get along very well. How, in any case, are you going to explain such a complex tale to someone over the phone. So I put them on the mailing list as well. If they don't like it, they can tell me.
Should you want to write to them as well here the address: communication@npa.gov.za.

Currently, I have a list of about 40 co-investors who I intend to sms with the details of this blog and the forum tonight. Should the reader have access to contact details of any investors, you are welcome to contact me at mkoppers@chromatique.com, and perhaps we can compare notes. With a class action being a real possibility against Edwafin and its directors it would be prudent to have as many individuals involved as possible.

Edwabond

I was going to do this entry yesterday, but too many things happened and I discovered that my time-reality was out of sync with my to-do-reality.
Yesterday, I put both this blog and the two groups/forums, EdwafinForum (Google) and EdwafinGroup (Facebook) back on the public map. This took some doing, as I needed to add some email addresses as well of those who have interested witnesses of the debacle.
Then, as it finally dawned on me that merely having friendly, amicable discussions with CEO, Stapleton, was not going to get me anywhere, I asked my attorney to proceed with legal measures. this is what I don't understand about the situation: given the legally binding arrangements that Edwafin has with its Debenture holders, its management blithely puts its nose up in the air, and ignores the whole issue. Yes, they talk about this and that, and make peculiar threats, treat old ladies with disdain, pay lawyers and advocates (if they do it for free, then I apologize) to help them in their bid to hoodwink their investors, make many, many, many promises, but solidly refuse to address and discuss the real issues at stake: the investment capital of investors.

Of course, I landed in this situation, some would say, "out of pure greed". Possibly, but where does greed begin; at 5% interest, 10%, 12%, 18% or 25% even? Yes, I know, there are those clever human beings who know exactly who the greedy ones are. They are the lucky ones, because in their next life they will proceed directly to a heavenly place, and will not have to return to this planet (unfortunately old Vic will miss saying, "I told you so").

Anyway, having created for myself the Archetype of the devil or Satan incarnate, I suppose I have to deal with it.
This brings us to Edwabond.
I'm sorry, they have removed all the photographs from the Edwafin site, so unfortunately I can't show you a picture of Carole Gardiner, CEO of Edwabond. Are we on the most wanted list, perhaps?

Interlude
Ms Gardiner, also excels as a denialist. At a moment in history, when I was still relatively naive about the management of Edwafin, I had an opportunity to speak to the lady. In fact, I was connected to her phone when I called to ask for a form, that Patrick had insisted I complete before he would return my money - I had emailed and phoned before, but the form did not emerge from the dark depths of Edwafin. OK. I got to speak to Ms Gardiner, and explained what I needed. She firmly denied that I was entitled to have my money back, and insisted that I wait the full five years, and she knew nothing about a form of any kind. The Matron has spoken, the discussion was going nowhere and she would email me.
Now, this lady, once an agent of Edwafin/Edwabond and now a CEO of its money capitol, did not even know about the contents of the debenture prospectus! My word, aren't we confused - of course that left an impression. And I thought the circus was becoming extinct.

Let's continue.
Patrick repeatedly tells us that Edwafin is not a Financial Services company. That may be so (if it makes any difference at all), but Edwafin owns Edwabond, which clearly functions as a financial services company. Edwabond collects the money for Edwafin from investors and markets the company's debentures. By Jove, it is even registered with the FSB (Financial Services Board - a government institution that is meant to regulate such companies)! They are also registered with the SAVCA and the NCC, both of which sound rather impressive, but I suspect are also acronyms for empty office space somewhere in the Republic of SA.) Like a dissenting father, Patrick simply ignores the existence of Edwabond when speaking of his company's function in times of stress. Yet, when it comes to collecting money, Edwabond is firmly part of Edwafin's organogram. They even have their own preferred consultants or advisors, and they are listed below. Note that some of them even have "financial advisor" in their business names.

Again we are presented with smoke and mirrors with little or no attempt to address the real matter that is of concern. Provide some kind of convincing and documented argument or announcement to indicate that those who want their money back will receive it back, if not now, then perhaps at a firm future date not too long in the distance. Untill that happens, you all remain under suspicion. As I said on the forum this morning, don't make us part of the problem, try to make us part of the solution.


Preferred Advisors to Edwabond are found here.

Rainbow Paints - Just In

It is going to be a busy day today it seems. As I finished the previous entry, the following arrived by email (extract - no names given). Does it speak for itself?

I noticed the blog & forum was not made public yet. You may mention matters regarding Rainbow Paints on your blog(no names mentioned). All the staff was retrenched in February 2008[sic read 2009] we still have not been paid out our Salary,Severance and leave pay. Ragan Govender who is the human resources manager of Edwafin has told us Edwafin are waiting for the funds from the sale of Rainbow Paints to clear which will hopefully be in April. Edwafin still cant give us a date on when we will receive our retrenchment packages. The new owners of Rainbow Paints have told me that the Money was handed over in February already. They don't have money to pay our small packages but Maria Stapleton (Patricks wife) is driving around in a brand new Mercedes since February/March.

The Blog has now been made public, and anybody is welcome to comment or read its contents. Except for specific instances, all documents held by Scrib will also become downloadable during the next few days. All this is a bit time consuming, and will take time to be properly disseminated, therefore please be patient, or write me a note.

And thus Friday arrived

Yes, here we are. Friday has come and it is actually a precursor to an exciting weekend.
Elke, my wife, now begins a two week holiday from teaching, and its always nice to have her at home.
The journalist from FIN24 would have come to interview me today, but instead is coming over the weekend, and he sounds like a jolly friendly and intelligent chap - I'm looking forward to it.
Also, this weekend is the end of the month: pay cheques, shopping, drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and of course the interest payment from Edwafin - or not. Who knows what the gods have in their lucky packet for us this time.
Furthermore, Edwafin is sending us all a letter towards the middle of April to report back on those meetings they held in Durban and cape Town (how many weeks ago then). It seems they were not very happy events, and perhaps it was a good thing that I was not invited as it would possibly have unsettled me too much. Shame on you, though, Edwafin, are we in Gauteng not good enough investors for you to keep us informed about such things? Perhaps the invitations were more selective than that.

But before I continue, I should first confirm that I am utterly disgusted with myself. My last email to Mr Stapleton, was just one big mess: full of grammatical errors and just plain badly written. By writing the email, when I did, I broke one of my own pertinent rules: never write a letter to somebody when you are not feeling happy, are upset, red in the face, hypertensive or any combination of the above.

To today's business.
Fortunately, I have the time to write this entry because FIN24's journalist is stuck with a broken car. We will meet over the weekend however.
Perhaps you will remember that I expressed my concern to Mr Stapleton about the dilemma I find myself in, and that I asked him to put his mind to the problem and see if he could come up with some kind of solution. Apparently he couldn't and as it is seemingly the norm at Edwafin, he could not bring himself to communicate his inability to me. This is not abnormal behaviour though, as I previously inquired about the board meeting concerning refunds to investors, and communication about this with the authorities, and that also resulted in a tromboning silence.

This morning when I contemplated this blog I was reminded serendipitously of old Mother Russia. Before that big "nation" disintegrated into 15 nincompoop states, disinformation, non-information, powerful threats of retribution, and actual persecution amongst many other forms of controlling the masses to tow the line. Now we have our own little Mother Edwafin, who rules firmly by means of the investors' collective fear of loss, and by legalistic bullying. One only has to read through the pages of this blog to note how effectively we are threatened with collective loss and legal repercussions. That is besides the other personal abuse one has to suffer when questioning a matter. Oh my ex-wife - how painful that was.

Anyway, back to my dilemma - well actually, based on my own answers to the following questions, I have concluded that there is no real dilemma, only a reality. Of course, if Edwafin has a different reality, they are free to tell us, please do.

• My inquiry concerning the famous board meeting in March - unanswered
• I asked about Edwafin informing the authorities - unanswered
• I requested some kind of commitment from Edwafin concerning my refund end of May - unanswered.
• Does this mean that they don't have answers, and can't commit to anything? - most probably
• Are investors trying to get their money back through legal representation? - yes
• Is Edwafin trying to find a legal loophole to avoid its obligations? - Read Stapleton's
  comments in this blog - apparently he has found one
• Are such investors successful? - apparently not yet. Crafty, gentlemanly professionals, of the upstanding kind - lawyers advocates are used to try and avoid such repayments
• Are these brave lawyers and advocates paid? - what do you think?
• With what money? - well now, three guesses
• Are monthly management salaries being paid? I have no idea
  
• Are you allowed to question the matter? - no, unless you are an expert on whatever matter concerns you (Mother Edwafin's stance)
• Why has this matter has become such an covert issue; "don't go public", "don't contact the authorities"? - perhaps they are in real trouble?
  

And that brings us to a logic 101 exercise:

1. Are the investors being stolen from? - no
2. Did they take our money originally? - yes, with pertinent basic conditions
3. Are those conditions being adhered to or even acknowledged? - well, are they?
4. Do investors receive their interests due? - no
5. Are there huge amounts of past interests due outstanding? - that's what started the whole mess
6. Do they want to give investors their money back? - I have asked, not even a promise
7. Are the investors being stolen from?

As I was writing this, I received an email from a person who used to work at the Paint Business, and who was retrenched at the end of February 2009. A "horror story" is what the person calls it. If one thinks about it, it must be clear that the "temporary" cash-flow problems must have built up for a considerable period of time, before the actual blow came. So the directors must have been aware of the impending crisis. Yet, they knew how to placate the investors with all kinds of stories about computers (costing millions of your interest money). I think the word is naive.

Sorry, Patrick, you are a nice fellow, but I'm done. Heavens, its like pulling teeth from a stubborn horse.

PS. This is today's first blog. The second will follow shortly and will deal with the now equally famous Edwabond, and its "preferred consultants".

Second Thoughts - Part 2

There is no rest for the wicked, and perhaps Mr Stapleton is correct in that I am wicked, and in need of reprimand. Nevertheless, I was happily going along with the rest of the daily duties my wife had allocated me, when another email from Mr Stapleton arrived. This time it was a request that I hold by my original undertaking of waiting until 31 May 2009:
20090325 Email From Stapleton 2

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Fair enough. However, there remains the niggling feeling, that few of Edwafin's pronouncements have come to fruition, and what if I don't get my money on or before 31 May 2009. Then I publish my blog and the whole caboodle washes over the edge in any case. That's of little use.
So, now I have asked Mr Stapleton to help me solve the dilemma by being inventive about the matter. I have plenty of ideas, mind you, but Mr Stapleton is a intelligent, innovative person, who is very capable of thinking for himself, and I will leave it up to him to conjure something out of his hat. At the same time I can give this blog a bit of a rest, probably until Friday when I might feel like blogging again. - There is one thing worse than blogging on this planet, and that is Twittering.

20090325 Email Respond to Stapleton 2

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Second Thoughts

This morning I was eager to get to the computer, to switch on both the blog and the group/forum. I must have done something wrong since I was later told that access to the blog could not be obtained. Perhaps that's how it was to be. I was in the process of sending out a group SMS to co-investors to make them aware of the blog and things when the following email from Stapleton arrived:

20090325 Email From Stapleton 1

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I get the message about the forthcoming letters and the meetings and things, but what is the man's concern with my daily activities? Also note, that in spite of the bad press, and their refusal to acknowledge responsibility for being unable to pay my capital back, I am made "die vark" in the game. So I asked him friendly not to be concerned with what I'm doing but to concentrate on his own work:
20090325 Email Respond to Stapleton 1

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I was convinced that our chat had been concluded and went on with the business of publicizing the blog.

Finally we have arived and edwafin is on the map

This morning when I decided to publish this blog, I thought that it would not be ready before tomorrow around noon. First I wanted to get the Edwafin forum group set up on Facebook. Facebook is, however, not a simple animal, when it comes to setting up a group, and would require a few hours of investigation and trial and error. So in the interest of time and expediency, I decided on using the Google groups, and hey, Presto! that was achieved without any undue trouble. The next step was to inform all the search engines and news groups, like Noseweek, and Fin24, etc. That was easily achieved as well, and all that was left was to activate this blog. That has now been done. Tomorrow, I shall begin contacting some of the huge list of investors that I have managed to get my hands on. Hopefully this will bring a good number of co-investors into the fold - especially when the news starts spreading virally. Of course the folks at Edwafin are constantly updated of every step on the way, and just as a reminder, the main purpose of this blog is:

1. to make known to the world that Edwafin is trying to renege on its undertaking to repay investors their capital in case of them defaulting;
2. that as far as Edwafin is concerned, clause 12.2 of the Debenture prospectus is not worth the paper it is written on;
3. they are prepared to use extreme bully techniques, and high powered legal assistance to achieve their subjugating objectives - this is evident from the recent legal proceedings that was reported on, and the general comments of their financial director and the CEO, Mr Stapleton;
4. unless Edwafin proves differently (not just by airy fairy statements), that there is no reason to think otherwise than that the company is bankrupt and, by its actions, has given good reason for its investors to regard it as being essentially insolvent, and unable to meet its commitments; and finally
   
5. that by their vague statements and weaving, half truths, they have shown themselves to be less than honest and sincere and excellent examples of vagabonds, who will do everything to hide the true state of affairs concerning their financial status.

This list may become longer as the blog progresses.
Since, Stapleton's last curt "that's the end of it" - email, Edwafin has been as silent as a grave deserted by its ghosts.

The Investor - Edwafin's Enemies?

Last Friday I requested an update from Edwafin concerning the board meeting that was supposed to be held during early March, and whether they had been in contact with the authorities concerning the return of my investment money.

No response to date.

Yesterday, I did a Google search and found a short article in Fin24 about the law suite by an investor to try and get her money back. It was actually reported with the headline "Edwafin finally underwater?", and with a rumor that Edwafin was applying for sequestration.

On the spur of the moment, I realized that I had been towing a line, that was going nowhere, and that I need to show consolidation with the other investors. I wrote a short comment with a link to this blog.

At the same time I wrote an email to Stapleton, asking him if they had applied for sequestration.
A short while later I received the following response:

No it is not true that we are liquidated at all. The press are making mischief. We have a minor investor comprising less than 0.006 of our debenture book who is upset because we will not pay her out for very good reason and she is bringing an application which our advocate is confident she will not succeed with. End of the matter

I immediately changed the name of the blog to http://edwafinexposition.blogspot.com/ and closed it to visitors (the name change sounds more apt). Note, however, that Stapleton does not say what the good reasons are, and that he is relying on the adbvocate's opinion about the matter. Neither is he commenting on the questions I asked him the week before.

However, this morning I found an article in the Witness outlining the story of this lady who wanted her money back, and found herself up against Stapleton's Dobermans. The following are my deductions:

• The investor now has become the enemy
• Edwafin do not intend to repay our money and simply denies that the investors have the right to have their money back
• Edwafin has unilaterally altered the terms of the debenture prospectus, and is now essentially sticking its tongou out at its investors
• The folk at edwafin are becoming more and more like the scumbags some commentators tend to describe them
  
• The original threat of high powered lawyers against anyone who tries to take Edwafin on, seems now to have become reality
• Edwafin and Stapleton are less than sincere in there dealing with their investors, and it is mind boggling that they are still trying to get more investors to invest in them.

In view of its beligerence against its investores, it is now my opinion that this should be brought out into the open. I realize that I had made an undertaking not to publish the blog before 31 May, in light of the disdainful way they have treated this lady (who simply demands what is now rightfully hers - like most of the investors), I don't think it is necessary to wait any longer. I pressume I will simply receive the same treatment when the time comes.

As from tomorrow, 25 March 2009, around noon, this blog will go public, and will be advertised at every nook and cranny that I can find, and that will hopefully attract the attention of other investors and/or potential investors.

The reason, why I have to wait 24 hours, is that I would like to get the Facebook support group of the ground, and that may take a while. The facebook group can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/myedwafin, biut needs activation and will also be advertised as wide as possible.

The friendly bantering Mr Stapleton and I had over the last months seems to have been a complete bluff, and behind the outgoing and friendly fascade there seems to be a vindictive, insincere, hard and greedy man. Bless him in any case.

After writing this morning's blog, I never thought that I would be writing another one today. However, the messages that the universe sends us knows no time as we on the earthly plane experience it, and thus when a sign is send our way, we have no choice in its presentation.
We left off the entry where I had sent Mr Stapleton a note thanking him for the photographs of the DMC vehicle and complimenting him on its progress. He seemed to have forwarded my email to some colleagues. Originally I didn't deem it necessary to publish a copy of my message on the blog, but here it is for the sake of completeness:
20090311 Email From MK Thanking for the Photos

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Obviously, as this blog is updated, copies of each entry are sent to a number of people concerned, and Mr Stapleton therefore received a copy of my previous entry - the one with the positive outlook on all matters Edwafin.

Am I mistaken or is the picture getting smaller again?

Some hours after having blogged I received the following email from Mr Stapleton:



20090315 Email From Stapleton

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business & Legal 6 months n%20interest%20payments" style="text-decoration: underline;">moratorium on intere

Mr Stapleton is a nice and very honorable man, and one has no reason to doubt his acuity in estimating the future and conveying his conviction in the essentially upbeat tone of the message.
But, ... is there something else one notices from the email. Einstein used the concept of exponential increase when he defined energy as the product of mass and the speed of light to the power of two. Exponential increase means that something does not increase by a set quantity, but that the quantity by which it increases, itself growths by a factor of 2 (doubles) or more.

Now, Last year when the troubles and the void of money began, the time period predicted before we would receive our money was 15 days. Good - that didn't happen
The next exponential increase was about 4/5 fold, and the void would be filled at the end of February (or earlier) - six weeks later.

No longer interested in the game called Edwafin, Mr Stapleton and I ultimately came to an agreement that I would receive my money at the end of May. The exponential increase was now doubled again at 8-12 weeks (depending where you start the calculation).

Something in Mr Stapleton's letter, gives me the vague feeling that we probably not be paid our interest for the next six months or so. Of course I might be completely wrong, and then a payment at the end of this month would come as a very pleasant surprise.

But have you also noticed that Mr Stapleton completely ignores our arrangement about the refund of my investment at the end of May. Of course this arrangement has been carefully recorded, and I doubt that this is a pure oversight on the side of Mr Stapleton.

However, there is no harm in timeous reminders - in fact I had nearly forgotten about it myself.