Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/14/2012 21:09 -0400
Capital Markets
Consumer protection
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Financial Regulation
Flight to Safety
Gambling
Lehman
MF Global
Poland
Precious Metals
recovery
We have said it over and over, we'll say it again. For all those who for one reason or another would like to boycott the broken markets, yet trade gold in paper form, please understand that all the invested capital is at risk of total loss and can and will be lost, commingled and rehypothecated, not necessarily in that order, with little to zero recourse and the residual claim on liquidating assets pushed to the very end of the queue. Because if Lehman, MF Global, Peregrine, and countless other examples were not enough, here comes Amber Gold: a gold-based investment ponzi scheme out of Poland, in which it is likely needless to say that the gullible investors never had actual possession of the gold. And when they tried, it was gone. All gone.
From the WSJ:
This week's collapse of a gold-derivatives business that Polish regulators say was a Ponzi scheme has hit tens of thousands of customers, shaken confidence in the effectiveness of the nation's financial regulation, and is roiling national politics in the European Union's largest emerging economy.
On Monday, the company, Amber Gold, Sp. z o.o., which sold a gold-indexed investment of its own design and offered higher interest rates than banks, said it was halting operations. It pledged eventually to repay about $24 million it said it owed to roughly 50,000 clients in Poland.
Amber Gold's 28-year-old founder, Marcin Plichta, who has publicly acknowledged past convictions for misappropriating funds, couldn't be reached to comment. Amber Gold representatives were also unreachable.
Despite three years of warnings by Poland's financial authorities that the company was operating without a license, it continued expanding and spent heavily on marketing. Among its businesses, the company launched a budget airline this year to compete with state-owned LOT Polish Airlines SA on domestic and European routes.
The airline, OLT Express, ceased flights last month and the gold fund unraveled this month after renewed government
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/and-why-you-always-demand-physical?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
| 