I am not an investor. Hell, I don't even really care about investment related stuff, but this whole Genneva Gold is really fascinating to me. I've been staying up late, reading up on the whole saga.

I find it quite incredulous (and hilarious) that the victims are calling BNM perompak and clueless. Imagine that. BNM is renowned globally with strict and conservative banking laws. I understand that thanks to a lot of the policies in place, we can be glad that we are not in a deeper hole economically than we are right now.

Nevertheless, these victims are questioning BNM's authority and pretty much the laws of this land as well because the danger of their hard earned money vanishing. I really loved how one mamat on the Genneva Gold Support Group FB page is trying to equate paying an Air Asia ticket in advance to illegal deposit taking. Suddenly, everyone is an expert on financial laws in this country. LOL.

This also really shows how people can be easily blinded by greed, and how common sense (which is really not that common) can be thrown out of the window.

"Ha, 25% return on investment? Better than EPF wei! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

Anyways, I am really keen to see what BNM decides. My honest and uneducated opinion is that this is a classic Ponzi scam. You can call it whatever you want, but I am of the school of thought that there are no free lunches in this world.

My thought goes out to all genuine victims, but I'm sorry. At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own decisions and actions. You live and die by them. If you survive this, you should never make the same mistake again.

I caught the tail end of the BFM interview this morning with Pat Lu and some malay dude. Gotta agree, Pat Lu is quite delusional and clearly in denial from her comments. Kept on harping about how Genneva Gold is not a scam and its merely a company that trades in buying and selling gold, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the company is being investigated for illegal deposit taking.

I love the comment about how the company has actually prepared the gold and hibah to be paid out on 1 Oct to customers, but since BNM raided them on that day, they couldn't pay anyone. So, the blame is on BNM. BNM should return the gold and unfreeze their accounts. Right. LOL.

I read also that there were also 500kg of gold in the Genneva Gold office and this was confiscated by BNM. Anyone with a brain will tell you that this is the stupidest thing ever. Really? 500kg of gold stored in a shoplot in Jalan Kuchai Lama with no armed security or a proper vault? Sure. I have 50kg of gold stored in a milo tin can in my house. It's way safer than keeping it in a bank. Apart from hearsay, no one can confirm this for real up to today. Neither has BNM confirmed that they took that amount of gold from them.

Sigh. When will these victims wake up? The party is over. The shit has hit the fan.

I really hope BNM will put the masterminds of this scam behind bars and pray that there is still money left to be returned to the victims. Again, I feel their pain but I do not pity their own doing.

This post has been edited by thurtin: Oct 11 2012, 10:52 AM

Based on my reading and understanding, Genneva 1 has different directors from Genneva 2. Technically, they are separate business entities although they share somewhat similar names.

This is a classic fly-by-night conman trick la. When your first business fail, you close shop or declare insolvency. Set up another business using different names (via relatives, spouses, etc) and start the party again.

Understandably, most of the victims in Malaysia are just b****ing about how BNM "took away their money. It seems that not much is said about the situation in Singapore as well. If Genneva Gold is legit, why is it being investigated in Singapore as well? Two countries that find this business model doubtful? Can't be coincidence right?

I would like to see someone explain that. Rationally. You say BNM is dinosaur, can't understand new world business model today. Fine. Surely, Singapore that is one of the major regional finance hub in the world can understand and appreciate this fantastic business model.

Which brings us to the point of why BNM closed them down. They don't seem to have a clear revenue model to sustain the business. If they are not trading in gold, how are they generating income?

Collecting tons of money + no clear revenue/income stream + can still pay dividend/profits/hibah = Ponzi.