jokach
December 3rd, 2005, 07:59 AM
Australias leading leading investment information resource recently posted an article showing its list of top 5 "bad apples" in investment, and sure enough, People in Profit System was listed on that list ... there are some other interesting 'investment' schemes being watched by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that are worth reading about in this article as well.
original article posted at:
http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/articles/30/0c038930.asp
Top 5 list of everything: bad apples
Zoe Fielding
1. Scott Robert Soutter: Acting as a commission agent, Soutter introduced investors to a scheme that was set up to raise public money to fund the recovery of sunken treasure from shipwrecks in south-east Asia.
Known as the Hatcher Unit Trust, the scheme allegedly promised returns of up to 1,365 per cent. It attracted 130 investors and raised approximately $730,000.
Soutter was convicted in November of operating the treasure hunt business without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence.
The court ordered Soutter to pay $2,000 plus legal costs and released him “on his own recognisance to be of good behaviour” for two years.
2. Elizabeth Heather Parry: The former operator of a Cairns-based accounting practice, Parry was sentenced in August to 10 years jail after pleading guilty to fraud charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
From 1997 to October 2003, Parry obtained approximately $6 million in loans from private investors who were guaranteed returns in the range of 9 to 15 per cent per annum. She then used the funds for her own purposes.
Parry will be eligible for parole after serving four years jail.
3. Craig John McKim: A former director of unlicensed Sydney financial services business Pegasus Leveraged Options Group was jailed for eight years and banned from being a company director for 30 years after stealing $2.1 million from clients.
McKim’s charges included three counts of funnelling client funds into various gaming accounts and four counts of falsifying documents to make the Pegasus scheme appear genuine.
He was also convicted on two charges of forgery brought by the Australian Federal Police, which alleged that McKim used a letter, sent to him by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), to prepare a forged document stating that his funds had been frozen by ASIC. McKim sent the document to a Gold Coast business broker to whom he owed payment of a deposit on the purchase of a company so as to delay making the payment.
4. Fake international ‘ regulators ’ : Foreign fraudsters set up elaborate hoaxes to lure Australian investors into buying worthless shares from unlicensed, overseas-based stockbrokers in offers often ‘verified’ by a fake international ‘regulator’.
Their tricks include official-looking websites with addresses that use “-gov” to resemble “.gov”, and phone numbers answered by staff pretending to work for ‘the regulator’.
Such made-up entities ASIC knows of include the Foreign Shareholders Protection Department, US Securities Investigative Committee, International Compliance Commission, International Equity Commission, International Exchange Regulatory Commission, the International Regulatory Commission, and Regulatory Compliance Commission.
5. PIPS: Also known as PIPS Inc, People in Profit System, Private Investment Profit System, Pureinvestor and PIPS Financial Services, this scheme is based overseas and promoted over the internet and in face-to-face meetings arranged by local agents.
PIPS website asserts members can design their own wealth creation plans in which, in one example, can yield returns of at least 2 per cent every trading day – more than 14,000 per cent each year if compounded daily over 252 trading days. At that rate, a $1,000 investment would return $21,601,632 in just two years.
The scheme is currently under investigation by ASIC and the central bank of Malaysia.
1 December 2005
original article posted at:
http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/articles/30/0c038930.asp
Top 5 list of everything: bad apples
Zoe Fielding
1. Scott Robert Soutter: Acting as a commission agent, Soutter introduced investors to a scheme that was set up to raise public money to fund the recovery of sunken treasure from shipwrecks in south-east Asia.
Known as the Hatcher Unit Trust, the scheme allegedly promised returns of up to 1,365 per cent. It attracted 130 investors and raised approximately $730,000.
Soutter was convicted in November of operating the treasure hunt business without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence.
The court ordered Soutter to pay $2,000 plus legal costs and released him “on his own recognisance to be of good behaviour” for two years.
2. Elizabeth Heather Parry: The former operator of a Cairns-based accounting practice, Parry was sentenced in August to 10 years jail after pleading guilty to fraud charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
From 1997 to October 2003, Parry obtained approximately $6 million in loans from private investors who were guaranteed returns in the range of 9 to 15 per cent per annum. She then used the funds for her own purposes.
Parry will be eligible for parole after serving four years jail.
3. Craig John McKim: A former director of unlicensed Sydney financial services business Pegasus Leveraged Options Group was jailed for eight years and banned from being a company director for 30 years after stealing $2.1 million from clients.
McKim’s charges included three counts of funnelling client funds into various gaming accounts and four counts of falsifying documents to make the Pegasus scheme appear genuine.
He was also convicted on two charges of forgery brought by the Australian Federal Police, which alleged that McKim used a letter, sent to him by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), to prepare a forged document stating that his funds had been frozen by ASIC. McKim sent the document to a Gold Coast business broker to whom he owed payment of a deposit on the purchase of a company so as to delay making the payment.
4. Fake international ‘ regulators ’ : Foreign fraudsters set up elaborate hoaxes to lure Australian investors into buying worthless shares from unlicensed, overseas-based stockbrokers in offers often ‘verified’ by a fake international ‘regulator’.
Their tricks include official-looking websites with addresses that use “-gov” to resemble “.gov”, and phone numbers answered by staff pretending to work for ‘the regulator’.
Such made-up entities ASIC knows of include the Foreign Shareholders Protection Department, US Securities Investigative Committee, International Compliance Commission, International Equity Commission, International Exchange Regulatory Commission, the International Regulatory Commission, and Regulatory Compliance Commission.
5. PIPS: Also known as PIPS Inc, People in Profit System, Private Investment Profit System, Pureinvestor and PIPS Financial Services, this scheme is based overseas and promoted over the internet and in face-to-face meetings arranged by local agents.
PIPS website asserts members can design their own wealth creation plans in which, in one example, can yield returns of at least 2 per cent every trading day – more than 14,000 per cent each year if compounded daily over 252 trading days. At that rate, a $1,000 investment would return $21,601,632 in just two years.
The scheme is currently under investigation by ASIC and the central bank of Malaysia.
1 December 2005