From time to time it is instructive to go back and take a look at signals and warnings that had been given before and which, if they had been heeded, would have saved so many from falling into traps such as the one being publicly exposed by the authorities about the Super Cash Back Gold schemes.<\/p>\n
The writer of this column has already alluded, in a previous article, to how the persistence of a suave agent was fended off by seeking the right guidance from someone in the know. The thousands of others who did not take the trouble to double-check on the soundness of schemes proposed, which depended on the credibility of the BAI \u2013 allegedly already then in question following the crash of a company in the Carribbean –, are now paying a heavy price for having yielded to the offer of higher than ordinary market interest rates.<\/p>\n
For those who invested up to Rs 500,000, they are lucky that they will recover their capital \u2013 but are still losers for not being able to obtain any interest. Those in the Super Cash Gold scheme will, unfortunately, recover their capital only partially in the first instance, and will have to make do with debentures spread over a period of five years for the balance of their capital contribution. And of course, similarly, with no interest.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what brings us to the saying of the French writer Alexandre Dumas fils who as far back a the nineteenth century had stated a truism: \u2018Les affaires?<\/em> C\u2019est simple, c\u2019est l\u2019argent des autres!\u2019<\/em> The full force of this reality is now being violently felt. There was some premonition many years earlier: the MCB-NPF affair. But with the media having to displace information rapidly and replace headlines with more newsy items to satisfy public appetite, the MCB-NPF scandal was quickly forgotten. However, it was nowhere near the alleged colossal billions of the present scam. As far as money goes, \u2018hundreds\u2019 and \u2018thousands\u2019 seem to no longer count: it seems that only millions and billions matter \u2013 not one\u2019s own, but the millions and billions of others!<\/p>\n In April 2013, this column, under the title \u2018Ponzi banks?\u2019 had written that \u2018The several Ponzi schemes that have exploded on the world scene in the past few years have all had machiavellic individ<\/em>uals as their originators. To all intents and purposes, they were highly intelligent, successful and extremely presentable gentlemen who seemed to enjoy the respect of their peers and society at large<\/em>, in which they moved seamlessly, with practically all doors open to them. Until the crashes came, no one in their entourage, let alone their unsuspecting clientele \u2013 who soon enough became victims \u2013 had any inkling about what was going on behind the scene, namely the workings of the wily cook-ups that were in fact a time-bomb ticking down to D-day!\u2019<\/p>\n In the early stages of the current BAI affair, Finance Minister Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo did not mince his words in the National Assembly, as he referred to the scheme as one \u2018well-planned by crooks\u2019 to defraud unsuspecting customers. And that was even before the magnitude of the scam was aired out in public, which its said subsequent unfolding and ramifications have confirmed. \u2018If only\u2026\u2019, thousands of credulous customers must now be regretting!<\/p>\n In that column, information was also given about the Ponzi scheme as follows: \u2018Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, (March 3, 1882 \u2013 January 18, 1949), commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was an Italian businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days\u2026In reality, Ponzi was paying early investors using the investments of later investors. This type of scheme is now known as a \u2018Ponzi scheme\u2019.<\/p>\n Rings a bell now? The money of earlier investors kept being siphoned away to other companies and locations, in disregard of financial regulations that placed a limit of 10% that could be used to support other companies of a group, and that too in favour of companies that were making a loss \u2013 partly because of the humongous \u2018management fees\u2019 that were going to the owners.<\/p>\n Attention was also drawn to the fact that \u2018Ponzi hired agents and paid them generous commissions\u2019 and \u2018investors were being paid impressive rates, encouraging others to invest.\u2019 He soon began to roll in money, \u2018started to live luxuriously,\u2019 and \u2018maintained accounts in several banks.\u2019<\/p>\n Sounds very familiar now isn\u2019t it? Add Cayman islands and Bahamas to complete the present picture.<\/p>\n The column concluded: \u2018It would therefore seem that people must also be cautioned about Ponzi banks, and be very careful to read and study in between the lines and scrutinise the small print before they decide to place their hard-earned moneys where the attractive terms may turn out to be more of a trap\u2026 there are unscrupulous schemers hiding behind decent-looking facades who are out to dig as much as possible into the pockets of unsuspecting les autres.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n And clearly warned: \u2018Just beware of any proposal, whether from bank or individual, that smells strongly of Ponzi!\u201d<\/p>\n If only\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n What future for Labour?<\/strong><\/p>\n We will reproduce some extracts from an article titled \u2018Discours (hypoth\u00e9tique) du Premier ministre de l\u2019Avenir\u2019, published in May 2010. They speak for themselves.<\/p>\n \u2018Apr\u00e8s avoir nomm\u00e9 ses ministres, le Premier ministre de l\u2019Avenir s\u2019adresse \u00e0 ces derniers et les autres \u00e9lus de sa formation comme suit :<\/p>\n \u2018\u2026il n\u2019y a que 25 postes minist\u00e9riels, et qu\u2019en tant que leader, la t\u00e2che qui m\u2019incombait a n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 que je prenne en consid\u00e9ration \u2013 que je p\u00e8se dans la balance, en fait \u2013 plusieurs \u00e9l\u00e9ments, tous plus disparates et plus compliqu\u00e9s, les uns les autres.<\/p>\n \u2018J\u2019y suis enfin parvenu tenant en compte les secteurs \u00e0 promouvoir et conscient surtout de certaines contraintes par rapport aux comp\u00e9tences requises et aussi de compl\u00e9ments d\u2019information que je d\u00e9tenais. Mais mon souci supr\u00eame a \u00e9t\u00e9 l\u2019int\u00e9r\u00eat du peuple qui nous a \u00e9lu, et je voudrais bien que vous aussi vous gardiez ce fait constamment en m\u00e9moire.<\/p>\n \u2018Il faut que l\u2019\u00e9quit\u00e9, la justice sociale, la justice tout court en somme, prime dans vos d\u00e9cisions. Je puis vous assurer que je vais \u00eatre vigilant \u00e0 cet \u00e9gard, vu la tr\u00e8s grande charge qui m\u2019a \u00e9t\u00e9 confi\u00e9e par le peuple pour la troisi\u00e8me fois.<\/p>\n \u2018Ils ont droit \u00e0 cette attente de la part de leur Premier ministre.<\/p>\n \u2018J\u2019attends donc \u00e0 ce \u2026que vous vous comporterez d\u2019une telle fa\u00e7on qui fasse honneur \u00e0 l\u2019Assembl\u00e9e nationale et qui rejaillira sur le pays car\u2026 souvenez-vous, l\u2019exemple doit toujours venir d\u2019en haut. Et nous sommes, Messieurs Dames, dois-je vous le souligner, supposes \u00eatre au sommet. M\u00e9ritons donc que nous soyons appr\u00e9cies comme des symboles de rigueur et de hauteur.<\/p>\n \u2018\u2026 j\u2019insiste que vous n\u2019oubliiez pas que vous n\u2019avez pas \u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9lus uniquement pour d\u00e9fendre les seuls int\u00e9r\u00eats de vos partisans: vous \u00eates les repr\u00e9sentants de tous les Mauriciens indistinctement, tout comme je suis le Premier ministre de tous les Mauriciens.<\/p>\n \u2018Je vous demande de rel\u00e9guer \u00e0 la poubelle toute vell\u00e9it\u00e9 de partisanerie et d\u2019\u0153uvrer dans un esprit de solidarit\u00e9 nationale.<\/p>\n \u2018Par ces temps o\u00f9 l\u2019information circule librement et il y a une m\u00e9fiance de tout ce qui est gouvernement, le public doit avoir confiance que les d\u00e9cisions seront prises en se basant sur des crit\u00e8res objectifs et transparents, et en respectant strictement les provisions de la loi.<\/p>\n \u2018Afin d\u2019accomplir votre mission et r\u00e9pondre aux attentes de la population, armez-vous des valeurs humaines universelles.<\/p>\n \u2018Assurez-vous de ne pas la d\u00e9m\u00e9riter aux yeux du peuple.\u2019<\/p>\n If only\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \n * Published in print edition on 8 May \u00a02015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From time to time it is instructive to go back and take a look at signals and warnings that had been given before and which, if they had been heeded, would have saved so many from falling into traps such as the one being publicly exposed by the authorities about the Super Cash Back Gold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3969],"tags":[140,7253,7254,139,114,285],"class_list":["post-3530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-economy","tag-bai","tag-carlo-pietro-giovanni-guglielmo-tebaldo-ponzi","tag-charles-ponzi","tag-super-cash-back-gold","tag-tp-saran","tag-vishnu-lutchmeenaraidoo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-UW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}