Showing posts with label fsb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fsb. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

More succulent Grass for some at FSB

The other day my attention was so concerned with the comment of the various anonimi, that I totally forgot to tell you about the phone call that I received from the FSB's Lawrence. Lawrence, I should remind you, is the only person who responded readily and sensibly to our request for assistance in the Edwafin matter. Granted the powers of the FSB is limited in this matter, but he was always ready to speak to many of us who contacted him and showed that Justify Fullhe was interested in the progress of the case.

Obviously, such a dapper and responsible attitude does not go unnoticed by the sphere of consciousness in which we find ourselves, and Lawrence is going to higher places in the world. I won't be so presumptuous as to divulge where he is going, but suffice it to say that one of the big banks will gobble him up into a good and responsible position.

Lawrence, thank you for your friendly, courteous and concerned help - you deserve good things in life and I for one am only too happy to know that you will no longer have to travel daily to that dreary building on the edge of Tshwane (of which Pretoria is a small part), near the old ghost house. Bon voyage with your new adventure!

So we come and we go, and one person who came into our awareness via Lawrence, is a retired gentleman from Brits (silly little town on the road to an even sillier Rustenburg, and about 100 km from me). This gentleman had invested all his retirement money with Edwafin and now, like all f us, has lost it all. At his ripe age he now has to do odd jobs to stay alive. He came to me, because he was not receiving any information from either, Ewafin, nor the liquidators, and I provided him with some basic insights and documents before he was on his way again by train back to silly old Brits.

Why do I mention this person - his name is unimportant - because he represents so many of you, and for whom I feel an intense empathy. Yes, many have lost money, but a good few of us will get by and stand up again. A good few, however, invested as part of a plan of sustaining a reasonable income from hard earned money. No matter what the very wise in our country say, your actions were not out of greed but stemmed from a number of possible choices and the one you chose was the option that presented you with the best vision for your future. It is unfortunate that some I-told-you-soers and shall-we-ever-learn-ers, see this as an opportunity for self aggrandizement, but pay them no heed as their snipes are not particularly aimed at you, but are an expression of their own limitations, fears and inferiority complexes. There are many other investors, who have also lost money, who have expressed outrage at the dire straits some of you now find yourself. However, careful thought will lead you to the conclusion that the universe always provides, and that it is our own believe in lack which is usually the thing that bowls us over emotionally, in other words not lack as such, but the though of lack is the unpleasant and often self-fulfilling aspect.

An apology

From the outset, I have been able to maintain my undertaking not to block any comments from this blog unless it contained threats of violence. There were a few commentators who requested that their comments not be published and I respected that. In one instance, I decided not to publish comments and those were the ones who cam from Carole Gardiner. Her nonsensical belligerence and personal attacks on other anonimi who she did not even know became a total waste of time and sullied the more-or-less respectability of this site. Even now, when I think about it, I still cannot believe that a person who led so many to the precipice of being wiped out, can be so callous, scorching, vindictive, self-righteous and psychopathic in nature. Anyway, she exited.

However, our recent excursion in psychopathy, shows that there is always a bent arrow in the bunch. I now realize that I should never have published the latest outburst from the anonymous interloper, and apologize for doing so. Following my blogged response it sent another comment making out that it was yet another anonymous speaking on behalf of the first anonymous purporting that he was not an investor who lost his money to "professional businessmen". Now go and make sense of that. Obviously, with this deliriousness, the story ends and no further comments by this person will be published. Seemingly it did not understand the phrase where I said it should perpetrate his fartisms on a site of his own. Petomania, pure petomania (go and read up in the dictionary what that means).

What concerns me more, though, is the high hopes so many Edwafin investors have in the process of liquidation. On the one hand, I understand that they are still hoping that some money may be found, and I hold thumbs along with them. However, since the final liquidation of Edwafin was granted based on the figures published in the first circular from the liquidators, I doubt that any money will be forthcoming from the liquidation process itself. Yes, there is the possibility that the inquest may bring some facts to light which may allow us to start a civil case against the (ex)directors, this is totally another process, and could imply that those wanting to do so would have to part with some more money. Whether there is any appetite for that, we'll have to wait and see.

It is interesting how, we the investors have shifted our hopes during this whole process. We focused on the DTI, SAVCA, CCN (I think), and FSB. All to no avail. Let's face it, if anybody was going to act on our behalf it should have been any or all of these bodies. Now, we have one last hope and we focus our attention of the liquidators. Pure folly, I tell you, pure folly. Liquidators are a peculiar group of bodies that belong to the highly remunerated mopper-uppers of society. Personally, it is my believe that such matters such as liquidations, funerals, and so forth should be handled by the state - society as a comprehensive group. Of course, we would still pay for these processes to take place via our taxes, and so it must be. Although loosing all your money or dying is essentially a highly personal affair, it is society at large who gets saddle with the repercussions and it should therefore be society collectively which should concern itself with the resolution of a end of existence scenario. So, for instance the state or its agents handle refuse collection - of various kinds, clean parks and streets etc. Yet, for those very sensitive areas in our existence bankruptcy and funerals we have to pay private bodies to do the cleaning up. Now, those who like to utter the word "greed", this is an ideal opportunity as pure "greed" is the motivation force behind these kinds of careers.

These cleaner-uppers are sometimes compared to vultures or maggots. In my mind it is unfair to compare the function in nature of vultures and maggots with these human sorts. Vultures and maggots clean up a mess once all that could be given has been given - that is their function in existence. Liquidators and funeral directors require you to pay some more, and more, and more. They make a good living off of it, probably better than some of us who have lost essentially everything. Somehow I think it is one of the more sickening aspects of human society that allows some to thrive on the misfortunes of others. In many ways these things are found mainly in Western cultures. In many other cultures liquidations just do not take place as debts are simply forgiven, the perpetrators of such losses often put to death or behind bars, and funerals are social events managed by the elders of such societies. My, My, how far we have strayed from decency.

Monday, April 13, 2009

We had a meeting last Thursday

If you eagerly logged into the blog to find out about any news concerning last Thursday's meeting between Edwabond, the FSB, and the NCC, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. I have a suspicion, that anything anybody has to say about this matter - if there is anything to say, will be in the press and probably after the long weekend. Of course this will give everybody the opportunity to enjoy they chocolate Easter eggs.

Of the three participants I must say that I have no doubts about the FSB'. Mr Lawrence Muravha has shown himself to be capable, sincere and above board. He has continuously responded positively to questions and issues, and seems to have an open attitude with the public's interest at heart. Mr le Meme, and the NCC does concern me somewhat. Their manner of handling my enquiry was extremely slick and somewhat evasive, or am I mistaken? But then I might be mistaken in the belief that they have any responsibility to the public, and perhaps their purpose in life is to make companies look good by proudly displaying NCC as part of their armament of credentials.

The third party was, of course, Edwabond, with Carole Gardiner at the helm. She is the person who takes your money, and then follows it up with the advice to consult with a debt advisor (that is if you still have another income of sorts), if they cannot pay you your interest. Now, isn't that extremely humane and helpful - the ultimate in feminine vindictiveness? Caroline Myss, the author, refers to this archetype as the "consuming-mother" figure - they gobble up that which they nurture and maternally produce.


Perhaps I am not taking this meeting too seriously, because I do n ot perceive it having much effect on the outcome of our, the investor's, struggle to get some equity from Edwafin. Yes, it would be with some satisfaction that I would learn of the revoking of Edwabond's licence - at least it would hinder them somewhat in taking others for a merry ride - but it would not return us our money.

A bit of trivia:
I refuse to add the word Edwafin to my spell checkers list of legitimate words. As a result, every time I type "Edwafin" the word processor suggests the words "deafen" and "deathen", like in the deafening silence of our deathening interest payments.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Entering the sixth month of financial draught

As we statrted April, we started the sixth month of essentially non-payment by Edwafin. For me it is also thee fourth month that I have been trying to get my investment back from our friend Stapleton.
Perhaps you will recall that NCC is used as a credential on the promotional material of Edwabond, the Edwafin subsidiary that promotes and handles the debenture products. A few days ago I added the email address of the CEO of the NCC to the blog mailing list. I sense that that did not go down well.
Somewhere I missed a beat or two, as the NCC's Clive le Meme informed me via email that they have been in contact with Edwabond since October last year already, and that he will be attending the meeting with the FSB and Edwabond on 8 April. As far as I was aware, the problems around Edwafin (and its subsidiaries) only became the subject of government scrutiny during recent weeks. Anyway, read for yourself:
20090404 Email From CNN 1
I removed the NCC's email from the list as it is clear that we don't share the same planet, and that we have to do here with a highly evolved species that clearly does like interacting with standard humans. Thus I provided Mr Le Meme, with my arguments:
20090404 Mario Responds to CNN 1
To which the response was:
20090404 Email From CNN 2
Well, clearly that was the wrong address, and is a clear indication that elements of 19th century snobbery is well an alive in the 21st century. The point that I tried to convey to Mr Le Meme is that people bought into Edwabond/Edwafin based on various factors, and one of those is the credibility that organizations like the NCC gives to such a financial institution. Five/six months after things begin to collapse at Edwafin, they provide the enquirer with a curt "we feel that we have done enough, and our duty." My -my, during those intervening months attempts were still made by Edwabond to rope investors into their scheme.

But let us forget about the NCC. An important aspect emerged from my interaction with the "entity" as Mr Le Meme refers to the NCC. Both the FSB and the NCC, can only deal with Edwabond, and have little jurisdiction over Edwafin, if any. Beside revoking Edwabonds licence, they have little to contribute to recovering any or some of the investors money. or to bring any perpetrators to book. It would, therefore, be prudent to rather concentrate efforts on recovering our money via other legal means, and on reporting progress that may be made by other Government bodies. I must say, though, that most of them are extremely quiet.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Latest gossips and the FSB again needs your help

This morning I had hoped that I would not have to touch Edwafin again today, but that was not to be.

I'll start off with a request from Mr Lawrence Muravha of the FSB. He would like to know if all our most of the investors have received a partial or full interest payment from Edwafin. They are meeting with the top echelon of Edwabond on 8 April, and would like to gather as much information as possible before arriving there. Mr Muravha's email is lawrence@fsb.co.za and his office phone number is +27 12 428 8000 (switch board) and +27 12 367 7288 (direct).

CIPRO and Edwafin still share the same silence at this moment in time.

There have been rumours which may be of interest to the readers, and at this stage I wonder aloud about certain things: why has a no criminal charges yet been laid against Mr Stapleton, and should steps not be taken to prevent him from skipping the country?

There have been many writers who have contacted me, who are as concerned as I am about the situation. Most have written to me privately, and out of courtesy to them I have not published their messages our quoted from them. As was to be expected, however, there are those who do not agree with me or with what I'm doing, and so is their democratic rite. Nevertheless, my invitation to those who agree partially or fully agree with my blog, to participate openly by posting comments here also stands for those who disagree with me. Please inform the public of your opinion on an open forum, you have the right to do so, and may perhaps convince us through your arguments to take a different approach. However:
Should you wish for me to close down the blog and cease commenting on the Edwafin affair, I would require for you to be prepared to guarantee the refund of my investment capital and interest that is still due. Until such time that you are personally prepared to accept liability for my funds, it is my democratic right to comment on the situation when and as I see fit in an effort to secure my funds.
If the above applies to you, feel free to write to me privately at mkoppers@chromatique.com.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

FSB - this is important for all investors; DTI?

Like most things, all this activity around the Edwafin issues has its positive aspects as well. Ever since I made contact with the FSB (Financial Services Board), I have been speaking to Mr Lawrence Muravha, Analyst: FAIS Enforcement Department of the FSB. We have spoken several times and he his in charge of the investigation of Edwabond specifically (that is the subsidiary of Edwafin that is registered with them).

Some of you might have tried to contact the FSB via their internet front end: that doesn't work at the moment as they are experiencing problems with their server. Most of us know about that, and we will have to be a bit patient. Note: if you want to complain with the FSB, don't use the form on FSB's web site but write to Mr Muravha directly at the address given below. This morning, I delivered copies of documents personally to Mr Muravha, and although they are situated in a most gruesome building, near the old ghost house in Pretoria/Tshwane, he seems to be well aware of the situation and is actively working on the case.

However, he needs the help of investors. He is trying to build a database of all the investors with Edwafin and invites you to contact him to leave your details. Those investors who invested with Edwafin since 1 November 2008, are especially important, as it turns out that Edwabond continued to promote, as it still does now, even after they became aware of their financial predicament. (One lady was offered an investment opportunity at 15%, the day before yesterday, and was told that the cash flow problem would be resolved by the end of the month - well, we have seen that happen, have we not?)

Mr Lawrence Muravha's email is lawrence@fsb.co.za. Alternatively, you could also write to me at mkoppers@chromatique.com, and I will forward your information to. However, complain need to be lodged directly with him.


And then there is the DTI. Now they are a different story all together. Have you tried to contact them lately? It is probably easier to get your money from Edwafin than to get any kind of response from the DTI. They are on this mailing list, but there is not much hope.
As far as can be established, the DTI was informed of the situation some months ago already (perhaps they are the authorities Stapleton referred to), but now they are merely coasting along twiddling any thumbs they are not sitting on. Have you ever tried to get an email address from their impressive website. No joy. Like so many modern organizations they are hidden behind a call centre number, and they are not in the mood to help.
Hey guys, wake up. Your country is calling you!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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

Sunday, March 29, 2009

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.