Profitable Plots

[brattzz]

i choose b.

No human is infallible.

[pianist]

so there is a reason why the old one wanna to stop at 2..

[Musicwhiz]

Here is the full article.

The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Apr 23, 2013
Sham investment plot motivated by directors' greed: DPP
Trio's Boron scheme to sell fuel additive was fraudulent: Prosecution

By Khushwant Singh

GREED was what motivated three directors of Profitable Plots charged with cheating 86 clients, by getting them to put more than $8 million into an alleged sham investment scheme.

That was Deputy Public Prosecutor Luke Tan's opening statement yesterday as the trial of the two British men and a Singaporean woman began yesterday.

The three directors are Timothy Nicholas Goldring, 58; John Andrew Nordmann, 54; and Nordmann's wife Geraldine Anthony Thomas, 44.

Each of them faces 86 charges of allegedly conspiring with each other to cheat clients by offering a 12.5 per cent return within a maximum of six months.

DPP Tan said that when faced with the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, the group's main business of selling land in the United Kingdom to investors suffered losses.

To ease cash-flow problems, the trio allegedly hatched a plan to get clients to pump money into the Boron scheme, which involved financing the sale of a fuel additive known as Boron CLS Bond to major corporations.

DPP Tan said the company touted the Boron scheme as virtually risk-free and with high fixed returns as the lubricant had been "pre-sold" to the corporations.

"Unfortunately, these representations, while sounding good, were definitively untrue," the prosecutor said.

The bulk of the investment money ended up being used for unrelated purposes and expenses - everything except the purchase of Boron CLS Bond products.

The prosecution is also alleging that the trio had issued documents for the transfer of the fuel additive to investors, but these were from a Dubai-registered company known as Profitable Group.

DPP Tan said that this was a shell company, set up and run by the trio to distance themselves from the Boron scheme and the misrepresentations made to investors in Singapore.

The prosecution intends to produce police statements made by the three directors and evidence from 54 witnesses, including an accountant, that will expose the flaws of the Boron scheme.

Several victims of the alleged fraud will also take the stand.

The trio however insist that they had operated a viable investment scheme.

When cross-examining the first witness, Mr Lim Kok Meng of the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), defence lawyer Wendell Wong accused the police agency of overreacting to rumours and "commercially killing the investment scheme by raiding its offices, seizing documents and freezing bank accounts" in August 2011.

To support this argument, he produced e-mail messages between disgruntled investors and Mr David Gerald, president and chief executive of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), which were forwarded to CAD.

Mr Wong further accused Mr Lim of being "fixated" on the trio being crooked to such an extent that he did not attempt to interview the other directors.

Mr Lim had told the prosecution that the trio had paid themselves huge salaries, bonuses and dividends.

The trial continues today.

khush@sph.com.sg

[tangoraven]

This thread reminds me of the Solomon Alliance investments booth at Suntec. I walk past the booth every morning on my way to work and always thought that if only the advertised return of 64% a year were believeable... Sigh.

[KopiKat]

I guess the investors didn't understand that the name "Profitable Plots" referred to the returns for the promoters and not the investors.

The other thing investors didn't realise was that the directors were hatching up different 'Plots' to achieve the kind of returns for themselves... So, ya, perhaps the name "Profitable Plots" was a subtle clue...

From an online dictionary,

plot : a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, especially a hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose

[smallcaps]

I guess the investors didn't understand that the name "Profitable Plots" referred to the returns for the promoters and not the investors.

The other thing investors didn't realise was that the directors were hatching up different 'Plots' to achieve the kind of returns for themselves... So, ya, perhaps the name "Profitable Plots" was a subtle clue...

From an online dictionary,

plot : a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, especially a hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose

Like 'Scheme of Arrangement'?

Scheme
Verb
Make plans, esp. in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong.

[LionFlyer]

Attend their sales talk many years ago on Concorde Village and they also went on to talk about their Boron scheme. Typical high pressure sales tactic to ask people to invest 15K just after a 2 hour talk!

[swakoo]

I guess the investors didn't understand that the name "Profitable Plots" referred to the returns for the promoters and not the investors.

The other thing investors didn't realise was that the directors were hatching up different 'Plots' to achieve the kind of returns for themselves... So, ya, perhaps the name "Profitable Plots" was a subtle clue...

From an online dictionary,

plot : a secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, especially a hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose

Like 'Scheme of Arrangement'?

Scheme
Verb
Make plans, esp. in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong.

In this case "plot" is a double entendre.

Thus, "Profitable Plots" is an oxymoron..... to the investor who knows England.

[Musicwhiz]

The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Apr 25, 2013
PROFITABLE PLOTS CASE
Investment scheme was 'not viable'
Prosecution's expert witness says it was 'unable to honour obligations'

By Khushwant Singh

THE trial of three directors accused of conspiring to cheat 86 investors out of US$2.4 million (S$3 million) heard yesterday that an investment scheme offered by their land-banking firm Profitable Plots was not a viable business proposition because it was "unable to honour its obligations".

Accountant Andre Toh Sern, who specialises in evaluating business sustainability for auditing firm Ernst & Young, appeared as a prosecution witness.

He said the Boron scheme showed a cash balance of US$4 million in November 2008 but just US$406,000 by August 2010 as payments had exceeded revenue.

For it to have survived, he said there should have been "sufficient purchase and sale" of Boron industrial oil and lubricant products at "sufficient profit margin with timely payment so as to meet its obligations to investors", he said.

He also pointed out inaccuracies in the brochure on the Boron scheme such as the claim that the products had been "pre-sold" to major corporations but the total value sold in Singapore during November 2008 and August 2010 amounted to US$215.

On the third day of the trial, Mr Toh also noted that while the brochure stated that the sums invested would be "exclusively for the purchase of Boron products", much of the money went to the firm's other businesses that included overseas property purchases.

The prosecution's case against Timothy Nicholas Goldring, 58, John Andrew Nordmann, 54, and Nordmann's wife Geraldine Anthony Thomas, 44, is that the firm was hit hard by the 2007 and 2008 global financial crisis.

To ease cash-flow problems, the trio allegedly hatched a plan to get clients to pump money in the Boron scheme by promising 12.5 per cent returns within the maximum period of six months, in an alleged conspiracy to cheat investors of more than US$8 million in Singapore alone.

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) raided the offices of Profitable Plots and seized its documents in August 2010.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Wendell Wong, Mr Toh agreed that the CAD had not passed him all the seized documents for him to prepare his report.

He also said that the title of one such document referring to payments to investors in July 2010 made it "relevant" to his evaluation of the sustainability of the investment scheme.

Mr Toh also admitted that he did not include the assets of Profitable Plots' offices in Hong Kong, Manila and Dubai to ascertain if the firm could meet its obligations under the Boron scheme.

Profitable Plots is no longer operating. Its documents have been seized and its bank accounts frozen.

The trial continues today.

khush@sph.coms.sg

[a74henry]

I remember I have attended their sales talk. Thankfully, I did not buy their sales talk.