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Protecting J'cans is what it's all about
Thursday, December 06, 2007
We have previously addressed the need for alternative investment schemes to provide the Jamaican public with information on their operations, but nothing, apparently, has changed.
Again we ask, if everything is above board, as the spokespersons for these schemes have been insisting, what is the fear of presenting audited statements that, at the very least, would silence the critics?
This newspaper is returning to the issue because each day that we continue to operate in the dark, is one day closer to the catastrophe on the horizon.
Several of these investment schemes are taking in vast amounts of money from Jamaicans, many of whom have mortgaged property or taken out loans to deposit in these schemes. Should they collapse, we shudder to think of the dreadful consequences.
Our wish is to help Jamaican investors get information that would assist in determining whether their hard-earned money is safe in these schemes.
We continue to believe that no one has the right to harvest such large sums of money without opening it up to scrutiny: What, for example, is happening with the money? Who owns it? Are the operators of the schemes fit and proper persons to handle your money? How will the scheme be sustained? What if, God forbid, any of the operators should die, how would depositors get access to their money? etc.
Media houses that attempt to flush out this kind of information on behalf of the public run the risk of being sued, in order to muzzle them. In fact, a previous story we carried on Cash Plus and its principal, Mr Carlos Hill, is now the subject of a libel suit.
However, the Observer is in a position to take care of itself. We want to help the large numbers of people who have put money in these schemes and who may not be able to protect themselves, in the event the schemes should fail.
That is why we have published several articles warning the public about the dangers of investing money without receiving full and complete information about the schemes and their operators. We see this as the duty of a newspaper which has its readers' interest at heart.
For example, in our Wednesday edition, we carried an in-depth story on the antecedents of Mr Carlos Hill who was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud in the United States in the 1990s, for which he was sentenced to almost 25 years in prison and five years' probation.
According to information obtained out of the US legal system by the Observer, on April 26, 1990, Mr Hill signed a US District Court of New Jersey document as the defendant, showing that he entered a guilty plea admitting that he "conspired with co-racketeers to commit fraud in interstate commerce regarding mortgages and other collateral instruments".
In fact, we must ask why was the previous administration so reticent about the lack of information by these schemes, some said to be in operation for as many as five years? Why the conspiracy of silence?
The current Government is a new one but we expect that it will move with dispatch to get the investment schemes to operate with transparency by providing audited figures on which sound judgement can be based. In this respect, we note the similar call by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
We have previously addressed the need for alternative investment schemes to provide the Jamaican public with information on their operations, but nothing, apparently, has changed.
Again we ask, if everything is above board, as the spokespersons for these schemes have been insisting, what is the fear of presenting audited statements that, at the very least, would silence the critics?
This newspaper is returning to the issue because each day that we continue to operate in the dark, is one day closer to the catastrophe on the horizon.
Several of these investment schemes are taking in vast amounts of money from Jamaicans, many of whom have mortgaged property or taken out loans to deposit in these schemes. Should they collapse, we shudder to think of the dreadful consequences.
Our wish is to help Jamaican investors get information that would assist in determining whether their hard-earned money is safe in these schemes.
We continue to believe that no one has the right to harvest such large sums of money without opening it up to scrutiny: What, for example, is happening with the money? Who owns it? Are the operators of the schemes fit and proper persons to handle your money? How will the scheme be sustained? What if, God forbid, any of the operators should die, how would depositors get access to their money? etc.
Media houses that attempt to flush out this kind of information on behalf of the public run the risk of being sued, in order to muzzle them. In fact, a previous story we carried on Cash Plus and its principal, Mr Carlos Hill, is now the subject of a libel suit.
However, the Observer is in a position to take care of itself. We want to help the large numbers of people who have put money in these schemes and who may not be able to protect themselves, in the event the schemes should fail.
That is why we have published several articles warning the public about the dangers of investing money without receiving full and complete information about the schemes and their operators. We see this as the duty of a newspaper which has its readers' interest at heart.
For example, in our Wednesday edition, we carried an in-depth story on the antecedents of Mr Carlos Hill who was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud in the United States in the 1990s, for which he was sentenced to almost 25 years in prison and five years' probation.
According to information obtained out of the US legal system by the Observer, on April 26, 1990, Mr Hill signed a US District Court of New Jersey document as the defendant, showing that he entered a guilty plea admitting that he "conspired with co-racketeers to commit fraud in interstate commerce regarding mortgages and other collateral instruments".
In fact, we must ask why was the previous administration so reticent about the lack of information by these schemes, some said to be in operation for as many as five years? Why the conspiracy of silence?
The current Government is a new one but we expect that it will move with dispatch to get the investment schemes to operate with transparency by providing audited figures on which sound judgement can be based. In this respect, we note the similar call by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.