Shire Investments - Anyone an investor in their Calgary real estate? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

photon · 07-06-2009, 10:18 PM

Just wondering if there's anyone else that's an investor with Shire? I admit that I invested with them many years ago.

The ASC issued a temporary stop trade against them recently, and finally after 3 years of silence all of a sudden there's a flood of communication how they're working to the investor's interests and are restructuring.. lol..

After 3 years and raising $70+ million none of the 10 projects they've started have had any construction begin, or even have construction financing secured.. some cases the land is being sold off. In some cases there is no money left in the project.

Doesn't look very promising. I've mentally written off my (not trivial) investment. Live and learn.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

If anyone else has invested in or knows of someone who has invested in this, forward them this link: http://shireinvestor.blogspot.com/

Basically some people have decided that there's sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to support a civil class action style lawsuit and retained a pretty experienced lawyer. So anyone who's a bond holder might be interested, if nothing else she's got all the info in one place.

Resolute 14 · 07-06-2009, 10:22 PM

Heard about this on the news not to long ago.

Dunno why, but I always mentally thought "scam" when their commercials played on Fan960... but that might be because it always came after the do-it-yourself Will kit commercials

photon · 07-06-2009, 10:28 PM

Yeah, or when they have people on "Talk to the Experts" on QR77, which is basically a big long paid infomercial, always comes across as smarmy.

Winsor_Pilates · 07-06-2009, 11:02 PM

Never heard of it, but it sounds bad conceptually. Hope you can get some $$ back. I would stay away from anything that says, give us your money and we'll invest it in real estate for you.

I_am_Beast · 07-06-2009, 11:25 PM

same as Concrete Equities...not hard to figure out a flakey get rich BS scam

BlackArcher101 · 07-07-2009, 02:05 AM

Wow, I just read the affidavit for the cease trade order. That is one messed up woman. Good luck to you Photon in getting your money back.

Where did the $50 mil go if all that's left is $200K?

photon · 07-07-2009, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I_am_Beast

same as Concrete Equities...not hard to figure out a flakey get rich BS scam

Sure, in hindsight. When I got in it wasn't really presented as that, it didn't have crazy high guaranteed returns or anything like that, it was a pretty simple investment in a marina on Vancouver Island which seemed like a good idea (and still does actually). Over the years their advertising has evolved to that kind of stuff, did they start out with the intent of that, or did they get tempted by all the money and change their business model to something less honest later? Who knows, until someone compels them to open the books and follow the money it's impossible to say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Wow, I just read the affidavit for the cease trade order. That is one messed up woman. Good luck to you Photon in getting your money back.

Where did the $50 mil go if all that's left is $200K?

Advertising? Offshore assets? Who knows.

Peanut · 07-07-2009, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Where did the $50 mil go if all that's left is $200K?

Yeah, that's pretty crazy that they burned through all the money somehow without even starting any of the construction projects. Yikes.

Hope you are able to get some money back, Photon!

photon · 07-07-2009, 08:10 AM

The lawyer who's handling the class action case said that in his experience (which apparently is quite vast in these kinds of things) said that the amount of money recovered and returned to investors leans more towards the zero side of things than the 100% side of things. So I'm not getting my hopes up, but who knows.

Cowboy89 · 07-07-2009, 09:14 AM

In a lot of cases the business proposals for a lot of these different real estate investments actually makes sense. Problem is that the quality ones get fully subsribed by big money interests first and the more these companies have to go after retail-type investors it indicates a higher inherant risk (In other words, advertising on the FAN 960 means that these guys didn't have a strong enough business case in their investments to convince professional money managers across Canada or the world to invest enough in their project).

Going back to protfolio theory a reasonable percentage allocation that anyone should have towards ultra-risky investments such as individual real estate projects, hedge funds, private equity, et al is like 5% of all of your investments. Considering that most of these types of investments and funds demand that you have a minumum investment of around 100,000, it would require you to have a total portfolio size of 2,000,000 diversified across more conservative investments such as blue chip equities, bonds, ETF's for any of these kinds of investments to make sense on a unsystematic risk basis.

Top Shelf · 07-07-2009, 09:34 AM

Wow, followed that link to the Shire investor blog, and was I ever surprised to see Jenn's picture up there! She just had her kid last July and is on mat leave from our company right now.

Hope you guys didn't get burned too badly

Knut · 07-07-2009, 09:38 AM

What about Foundation Capital ? Anyone with experience with them ?

4X4 · 07-07-2009, 09:45 AM

What's the take on Signature Capital?

Call Simone Russo 313 03 42
that's 313 03 42

photon · 07-07-2009, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Going back to protfolio theory a reasonable percentage allocation that anyone should have towards ultra-risky investments such as individual real estate projects, hedge funds, private equity, et al is like 5% of all of your investments.

Yeah, that's the good thing about all this is this isn't all of our investments, it hurts to lose anything of course, but it's not like this is going to make us have to retire later or change our plans or anything like that.

Cowboy89 · 07-07-2009, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah, that's the good thing about all this is this isn't all of our investments, it hurts to lose anything of course, but it's not like this is going to make us have to retire later or change our plans or anything like that.

Good to hear. So many people involved in a lot of the recent bankrupcies and scams had far too much of their net worth tied up in these things. Good luck in getting your money back.

Claeren · 07-07-2009, 11:23 AM

Photon, wasn't it you that took down my anti Concrete Equities rants after they threatened to sue?

If a company is actually out threatening lawsuits against internet forum posters they are probably not a very legit company. (And Shire and Concrete are birds of a feather.)

Live and learn though.....

It may be worth noting that (obviously) the worldwide banking system itself would have collapsed if not for TRILLIONS in both direct cash infusions and TRILLIONS more in debt default guarentees, so in reality you would have lost everything you had anyway. Banks just got bailed out where these other debt happy companies did not. lol

Claeren.

Bertuzzied · 07-07-2009, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claeren

Photon, wasn't it you that took down my anti Concrete Equities rants after they threatened to sue?

If a company is actually out threatening lawsuits against internet forum posters they are probably not a very legit company. (And Shire and Concrete are birds of a feather.)

Live and learn though.....

It may be worth noting that (obviously) the worldwide banking system itself would have collapsed if not for TRILLIONS in both direct cash infusions and TRILLIONS more in debt default guarentees, so in reality you would have lost everything you had anyway. Banks just got bailed out where these other debt happy companies did not. lol

Claeren.

For those unlucky people who are with concrete equities here is a link you might want to follow. Can't believe so many of my friends got suckered into them. Just insane payouts they were offering. Too good to be true and it was.

http://forums.canadianbusiness.com/t...art=0&tstart=0

photon · 07-07-2009, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claeren

Photon, wasn't it you that took down my anti Concrete Equities rants after they threatened to sue?

I don't recall, but could be; if someone does threaten legal action usually that results in the post being taken down. Unless someone wants to front the legal fees involved to fight it.

Shazam · 07-07-2009, 12:39 PM

Someone spent a lot on hookers and blow.

Barnes · 07-07-2009, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claeren

Photon, wasn't it you that took down my anti Concrete Equities rants after they threatened to sue?

If a company is actually out threatening lawsuits against internet forum posters they are probably not a very legit company. (And Shire and Concrete are birds of a feather.)

Live and learn though.....

It may be worth noting that (obviously) the worldwide banking system itself would have collapsed if not for TRILLIONS in both direct cash infusions and TRILLIONS more in debt default guarentees, so in reality you would have lost everything you had anyway. Banks just got bailed out where these other debt happy companies did not. lol

Claeren.

There are so many ways to spell Ponzi.

These companies can threaten to sue all they want but a site is under no obligation to remove user contributed content if it is not illegal. Once a site starts, there is a very fine line between a site of community contributions and a news outlet that needs to abide by the same standards as a journalist or editor. We must not loose the right to parody, or comment and keep these people accountable.

It is not in the best interest of shady companies to take people to court risking their shadiness being revealed so they would back off eventually. That being said, if a website owner doesn't want the grief at the moment, the easy thing to do is just remove it.

I hope everyone gets their money back and those responsible hang from the gallows.