Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Giant awakens, and I'm off with Alice in Wonderland

When one comes to this blue planet with the decision to teach others to make beautiful, logical sequences of sounds, it is because one has to atone for past errors of judgement. I so regret the times that I must have driven my teachers to desperation when I considered myself good enough not to practice. All those good souls are now sagedly and good naturedly nodding their heads in agreement from those wispy clouds where they are in hiding. You see, they are hiding because they no longer want to be sent back to earth to teach the young ones. Fortunately, I know where to find them when I want to join them.

Yep. The earth shuddered and like a colossal heap of airy-fairiness, it stirred and lifted its little toe. You guess right, my friend, the DTI does exist. I nearly fell from my chair, but I couldn't because I was floored already.

Back in January 2009, I made several attempts to contact the DTI. Several attempts came to naught - they had fallen into a stupor and missed the planets ride to sublimity. Yet, today I get an email that starts "Dear Mario", and then continues in a style that is vaguely familiar. And the reason for that is, that the whole email after "Dear Mario," is a verbatim quote of a posting to this blog that I had made nearly half a year ago. It contains the part where I proudly pronounce my friendship with Lawrence of the FSB.

After about three of my own paragraphs, the email ends with:
For future reference please quote this number (1814536)

Response:

Please kindly see the attached complaint form, kindly fill it in for us and fax it to the dti, Office of Consumer Protection, Consumer Complaints.Fax: 012 394 2552/8, Fax: 012 394 2552/8, 012 394 2704 alternatively contact Mrs Bonolo Moloto Tel:+(012) 394 1558 Fax:+(012) 394 2558

Please contact us again if you require any further information or assistance.

Regards,

the dti customer contact centre

0861 84 33 84

A form is included, that starts with
Before you lodge this complaint you must first approach the service provider to attempt resolution of your complaint
I quietly chuckle whilst I check if I made any profits in Spread trading - I did, but not much. The hilarity is overwhelming, and was it not that some of you warned me against insanity I would have become depressed: Hey, all of you complainers, have you yet spoken with Patrick to trie and solve your problem? You must you know. Take note that there is a number for "future" reference. My deary,for all the bum-notes that have ever been played in the name of music, they haven't yet realized that the future has passed them by and that they become lost in the smelly fumes of planet Pluto - no offence to Donald Duck, but he comes to mind as well. In fact, I think Disney has reincarnated.

Anybody here who would like to volunteer to "contact them again for ... further advice and assistance?"

If you want me to publish the form, please let me know. I promise I will do so before the other toe stirs.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

All sleeping giants will now be wide awake and covering their butts from every angle imaginable - because a little birdie/s have informed them of the impending doom/implosion that they in their professional (sic) capacity refused to acknowledge. Better late than never ain't gonna cut it this time round.

Hopefully some wide awake journalist/s will jump at the opportunity to investigate the very Institutions setup to spend tax payers money and do nothing. Why they excist in the first place beats me!

Anonymous said...

I heard a rumor that Patrick has spent some time in jail before. Not much time,only about a week or two.
Is there anyway to confirm this rumor?

Anonymous said...

If you have been horrified and shocked up to this point, wait it gets worse......

The "so-called" offshore derivatives, are non-existent.... or lets say no longer!!!

A birdie told me that the company Puritan was liquidated 2 years ago. So who then was the source of the bi-monthly statements and certification, of which access to the information only the CEO was privvy to? Methinks the thot plickens? Also why were 2 directors coerced into signing the derivative into the CEO's personal name, even though it showed as an investment in the Edwafin financials? This same investment was used to motivate the judical management application!
Was the timing of the signing over in anyway co-incidental to the rumbles of Puritan possibly going belly-up with investors money.And even more importantly could those same funds be stashed somewhere else and in whose name?

Who is pulling the wool over whose eyes here, seems to me that the sheep..oops make that other directors may have been duped good and solid??

Smelling something fishy, no make that rotten...........

Anonymous said...

Oh my..... The sneaky man.....
Actually, it kind of makes sense now. I once asked A Stapleton family member, "Patrick must be nervous as he could loose his derivatives if the company went under" and if I remember correctly this person said rather confidently, "no,he wont loose it, there is a plan." (something along those lines.)
At the time I didn't think much of it.

Anonymous said...

Well that plan has just gone AWOL.

Patrick Stapleton and his family members, who all fed off Edwafin, and extremely well at that for years, must be made to face the music. Complicity in the plan comes to mind? Why else would the entire family (and the add-ons)have resigned during the last 6 months?

None of them should be allowed to leave the country under any circumstances.

The deceit and duplicity has been outrageous. Not only to the detrement of the investors who have been duped into parting with their funds, but every ex-staff member including directors (and yes, I know I will cop flack here again) have been hoodwinked by the grand Stapleton plan. Say what you will, but why were those sheep...I mean directors, "herded" into those positions in the first place?

As they say, "if you want loyalty get a dog", a tad late for those considerations at this point.
Justice will prevail or we will die trying!!!

Anonymous said...

Directors hoodwinked? Do you seriously think so? Consider for a moment that the Directors of Edwafin were either family members or old family friends. Patrick (Both Chairman and CEO of Edwafin) & Maria Stapleton (Chair of the charitable Edwafin Foundation) and their children, Garth (CEO of the then Rainbow Paints), Ruth (The shining star of DMC -see back editions of the Mercury) and Michael were all privy to the workings of the organisation. The Klynsmiths and Hutchinsons are all old family friends. Those heading up senior roles in the subsidiaries too were related to the family. The only folk that could probably get away with laying claim to having the wool pulled over their eyes would be a handfull of the old era non executives and those that arent related through marriage or blood decendants. Sorry I dont buy the pity party. Id like to try believe that everyone has good in them, but sometimes when people are as thick as thieves, they find the gall as a group to assist in justifying each others actions. Blood I believe, is indeed thicker than water.

Anonymous said...

Directors hoodwinked? You kidding me! How can experienced Directors some of whom are astute accountants and/or had their very own CPA practise at one time - not know that the various Edwafin business ventures where a sham/window dressing, with no real revenues to show for all the hardwork (sic) that went into making them a business disaster.

The main goal was to seek out investors wherever they maybe on this planet and grab the loot.

Hidden offshore accounts you bet! - outside help you bet! All you need do is trace all the friends of directors who at one time had dealings with each other and are living overseas and were visited by the PS clan - these guys are not too bright and only trust each other, thereby keeping everything in the family - should be easy to find out who's who in the closed zoo...

Anonymous said...

Also why 2 directors were coerced into signing the derivative into the CEO's personal name.

Curious which two directors? can you say? will be appreciated as I have a theory.

Anonymous said...

I would like to know how many subsidiaries the Edwafin crew have "managed" since the day they started fleecing people. I suspect there are some failed businesses which were probably hidden behind other versions of the Edwafin name. How long has this man been getting away with proverbial financial murder. I would be very interested to know what the Stapleton roots are. Where our astute Patrick comes from - what other scams he has been a part of. (Dont worry Mario - my reference to astute is loaded with sarcasm.)

Anonymous said...

Here's a thought:

I wonder if the PS crew have transferred Trust Fund accounts that they were managing prior to joining EdWafin to Edwafin Group on becoming directors - if this is a yes! then more investors have been screwed.

It's an old trick - when clients allow CPA's to manage their trusts and start asking questions about thier trusts, it is then easier to refer them to a bigger "pot of gold" down the line to put them off from withdrawing their trust funds. Allows one to add restrictions to avoid getting caught with one's hand in the cookie jar...

Anonymous said...

In response to the above regarding ealier investors in the Ruwenzori trust being hoodwinked...I think you are damn right.

Why else would there have been a
R32 million loss transferred from the Trust fund across to the newly formed Edwafin???? What happened to these investors funds? And then they have the gall to raise a further R170 million?

Why of why were we so blind?

If only investors and some directors had seen the wood for the trees years ago, the company and the orchestrators could have been exposed for what they really are. Instead we have 2000 plus wrecked lives.

Anonymous said...

Ruwenzori Trust comment - appears that the PS clan were at it before Edwafin. I wonder who signed off on this trust? Obviously practise does not make perfect...

Anonymous said...

I agree with you entirely. It was just the same old "modis operandi", raising public funds whether for the Trust or the Edwafin model.
Of course they changed the financial instrument to a debenture, tried to "dickie" everything up with speak such as DTI, CIPRO,FSB, SAVCA et al, not to mention the laughable "RISK DEPARTMENT" and it's implementation measures.!! Everyone, directors and staff alike were under scrutiny, except for the only ones who should have been!!!! All e-mails were read by Mike Stapleton who fed his father with information including intensely personal issues, which were then talked about amongst themselves.How much more invasive
could that get?

Oh yeah, there are loads of stories and they will break soon enough.......

Anonymous said...

I can confirm that both Patrick and Maria Stapleton spent some time in Jail back in the 90's. No it was not for a long period of time but it happened.

Does anyone know exactly what if any criminal charges they are facing personally?

Anonymous said...

I have it from a reliable source that Patrick Stapleton not only did in his investors but led his own extended family down the garden path and many now find themselves in a dire situation, seems the only ones who came away from this unscathed are his immediate family. In truth Patrick looks after Patrick.