Who has been caught in Ponzi schemes

[MichaelK]

A few years back most of the employees at my place of work were all involved in the Carmol diesel scheme. How it worked, the "company" Carmol would purchase petrolium products from SA and then transport and sell it up in mozambique.

It was heavily advertized in KZN with the carmol group doing recruitment presentations at Coastlands in Durban and in Umhlanga.

The scheme offered 8% interest on your investment per month. Thats almost 100% return on your investment per annum.

The guys at my work had been in this scheme for over a year and where seriously reaping the benefits.

I was sceptical and after much hesitation i took the plunge and invested R80 000. For 3 months my returns where beyond my wildest dreams. So like an idiot i invested another
R220 000.

Shortly after i'd paid the money over, the reserve bank got involved accusing Carmol of opertaing as a bank without a banking license and they had all their assets frozen.

Auditors were appointed and it later was established that the Petrolium products being sold to mozambique had only occured for 2 months and the rest was all based on a ponzi scheme.

Everything has been on hold for quite a few years now. The auditors have completed their audits, liquidators have been appointed. However no repayments are forth comming.

I'm now told that SARS has somehow gotten involved so that will mean even a larger cut of the money taken away, so less repayments to us investors.

I'm feeling cheezed off with myself for being so bloody stupid.

 

[Limpopoking]

I've watched some of the schemes develop and ultimately implode and quite honestly, getting into something like Mavrodi's MMM or the SuraPure schemes in the very early stages has given a handful of people some fantastic returns. However, these returns are ALWAYS at the cost of the masses of later arrivals and can never be justified on any "human" level.

Basically, any investment that promises returns of more than about 20% per annum must be viewed with a high level of suspicion. The sellers of these schemes go to great lengths to try to convince the public that they are legit, but in the end, so many people lose their shirts.

What is worrying though is that our Financial Services Board is very slow to act on the schemes. They take years to close Ponzi's and by the time they do, the scheme originators have usually siphoned of millions in ill gotten gains. They are reluctant to even warn investors of the potential of schemes to be pyramids or ponzis.

Many years ago, I got taken by an investment company for (at the time) a small fortune. Since then, I have been very wary of anything that looked too good.

Basically, there has to be a sound business model in place in order for real investment potential and unless something tangible is exchanged for money, then be careful. I'm even highly suspicious of network marketing... In the end, someone is not going to be able to pay the huge returns promised.

The other real tragedy about the winding up of these schemes, is that the lawyers and liquidators always make off with whatever little is left in the pot.

 

[plugger]

I was in a scheme years back where you bought in for I think it was R100 and you got a list of postal addresses, you had to send by post R10 to the name at the top of the list , put your name on the bottom and sell the list to someone else. Every time the list was sold you moved up one until you were at the top of the list and then the money would start coming in. Well I got in early and it wasn't long before the R10 notes started coming in the post. I got around R900 and then the scheme was investigated and closed. If you are looking at any of these schemes get in early and get out quick.