Recently, Bank Negara raided the office of Gold Trading company Genneva and confiscated their gold and their record books.Initial investigations according to officials from Bank Negara was that Genneva was operating a Ponzi scam. Now what is a Ponzi scam? The Ponzi scam was started by an Italian by the name of Charles Ponzi.. He started his scheme in the early 1920s by promising 50% profit within 45 days or 100% profit within 90 days by buying discounted postal reply coupons.in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States under the guise of arbirtage.However , the truth was Ponzi was paying early investors with money collected from later investors.and when Federal authorities caught up with him 5 banks came crashing down with him.
After almost one century we have on our shore another Ponzi scam similar to that operated by the original Charles Ponzi.. This was the Genneva gold trading scam.But this is not the only Ponzi scam currently floating in our market. The Govt EPF Ponzi scheme is one gigantic Ponzi which at current value approximate $406 billion.
The current EPF scheme paid by contributors resembles if not is actually a Ponzi scam which for all intent and purpose follow the exact footprint of Charles Ponzi. The only difference is that it has been bestowed the aura of legality.Like its original Ponzi scam, money from recent contributors are used to pay late contributors whose terms may have reached maturity.Further, money collected were invested in long term investments and some were sequestered in dubious investments which were dubious and risky..In 1990s a woman who headed the EPF invested heavily in MBSB which was in housing loan business. The venture ended with a loss of almost $1 billion..Like the Ponzi scheme, if all contributors were to demand payment now the EPF scheme would also collapse like a house of card.
As more and more of the EPF money is taken by the govt to finance its budget deficit , the fund had to resort to increase the contributions from the contributors..The signs are there. Like all Ponzi scams its a matter of time before the govt sponsored EPF scam will follow the same fate as the Ponzi scam. Only this time the culprit will be the B.N govt..
No comments:
Post a Comment