Will the Harlequin Resorts debacle explode in 2015?

David Ames – Harlequin’s Ponzi King

The numbers tell us one giant truth: From the start Harlequin was set up as nothing less than a Ponzi scheme requiring a constant influx of new victims to keep everything going.

Consider these numbers…

– Total “deposits” by victims: US$800 million

– Percentage of “deposits” paid as salary and sales commissions: 50%

– Percentage of “deposits” used to pay interest to earlier “investors”: 22% (estimated, see below)

– Number of units sold: 9,114

– Number of units built: 230

It might be worth Ames and his merry band of supporters considering to remain silent throughout 2015.

To do so would reduce if not eliminate the anti-Harlequin responses no matter how articulate and factual they may be, given that the anti-Harlequin posts in the main are merely responses to the incessant nauseating, repulsive litany of lies emanating from Harlequin and their supporters in their never ending quest to justify “at best” the gross incompetence and abject failure by the Ames family and staff of Harlequin to operate their businesses in a proper manner.

The constant need to allay the blame for the failures of the Ames family and management at Harlequin at the door step of others demonstrates that the Ames family and management of Harlequin are in serious trouble.

And that summary is giving Ames and his cohorts far more benefit of the doubt than the facts say they deserve. The only reason I can think of that they haven’t been arrested as yet is that the Serious Fraud Office has been overwhelmed by the planned worldwide chaotic nature of the fraud through only god knows how many different companies, coupled with legal contracts bearing so much fine print, inter-jurisdictional references and available outs for the criminals.

The resorts will most probably never get built, not in the lifetime of many of the purchasers victims.      

Texas Billionaire Crook Sir Allen Stanford hospitalised after jailhouse attack. Can we get a deal on his yacht?

Sir Allen Stanford - Drug Money, Fraud

As of Sunday night, SIR Allen Stanford is still in hospital after taking a thumping last Thursday in a jail about 40 miles north of Houston Texas. His injuries are reported minor and there is no word why he’s still in hospital.

Would an ordinary crook still be in hospital for “minor” injuries after a fight with another inmate?

Probably. We found some stories that mention SIR Allen has an ongoing health problem and carries a metal stint in his heart.

Meanwhile, how about we all chip in on a new boat? SIR Allen’s newly renovated 112 foot yacht is up for sale. Yup… I could see myself with a tonic and gin in one hand and my woman in the other… sitting back as we head for nowhere in particular. Maybe a little sport fishing in the morning. Yup, I could get into that just fine!

I got me a thousand dollars, maybe double that if I stiff George for the money I borrowed to fix the car when the engine blew up.

Let’s see. Yes, subtract two thousand and that will leave a balance of, ah, about six and a half million US dollars…

Sea Eagle - 112' Hakvoort seized by Stanford's trustee.

Further Reading

June 19, 2009: FBI Arrests Sir Allen Stanford, Antigua Government Official & Others For US$7 Billion Fraud, Money Laundering. Striking Similarities With Barbados CLICO Fraud

Standford International Bank Bars Withdrawals – Charges Laid In $9 Billion Dollar Fraud

“We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world”

… United States SEC Director (Fort Worth, Texas) Rose Romero in the TimesOnline

Sir Allen Stanford’s House Of Ponzi Cards

The economy pulls back and the facades of integrity and competence presented by many of the super rich start cracking. We’re not even mildly surprised anymore to hear that another financial empire was sustained not with integrity, skill and intelligence, but by the simple technique of using the funds of new investors suckers to provide apparently exceptional returns for existing investors – thus attracting more new investors suckers just like the great swindler Charles Ponzi did in 1920.

For the last few weeks, desperate people have been trying to get their money out of Standford’s schemes: lining up every morning near the airport in Antigua without much success. Sir Allen will probably not go to jail. Very few of his wealth do. And you can bet that he and his friends had plenty of warning to sock away twenty or thirty million or more against the day.

I find that after the last six or eight months, I look differently at all the flamboyant high-flyers.

I also look very differently at their friends in governments everywhere who allowed this to happen, and who are so reluctant to hold any of these crooks accountable.

Not Much Different In Barbados

In Barbados the first politician on the list is Prime Minister David Thompson who has obviously cut a gentleman’s deal with the BLP that no one will be charged no matter what was done. Think about Thompson’s speeches, Hardwood Holdings, the GEMS hotels scandal where hundreds of millions disappeared and the houses that your tax money paid for that were never built.

No one has been charged. No one has been fired. No money has been recovered: not a single dollar.

And in the middle of all that, David Thompson still refuses to prohibit government officials from issuing contracts to companies they own. He still refuses to prohibit government officials from receiving “gifts” from companies they issue contracts to. And, oh yes, the Barbados Anti-Money Laundering Authority has no staff, no address, no phone, no email and no fax number. (See Barbados Money Laundering Advisory article Does The Barbados Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) Really Exist?)

Welcome to more of the same, my friends. It’s a downer and not what you want to hear… but it is true nonetheless.