Shire Investments - Anyone an investor in their Calgary real estate?

[photon]

Here's the statement of claim filed against, well, everyone it seems.

https://sites.google.com/site/shirei...attredirects=0

[MoneyGuy]

I need to remember this thread for the next time a client asks me about a land investment opportunity. Sorry to hear of your loss.

[chemgear]

I know this is an older thread but some recent news about Concrete Equities:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/newrepl...te=1&p=1925928

A second witness Thursday also testified he also didn't meet the criteria of an eligible investor and was told he'd get a 682 per cent return

[chemgear]

Some more follow up to the Concrete Equities Saga:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/stor...sc-ruling.html

http://albertaventure.com/tag/concrete-equities/


Vincenzo De Palma, Varun Vinny Aurora, David Jones and David Humeniuk, the ASC said, "acted illegally … [and] with an irresponsibility that played a direct part in what befell … investors".

[Daradon]

Good info in the bump. Whatever happened in your situation Photon?

[V]

Wasn't that David Jones feller always on the news with financial advice on the markets every morning? I thought he was pretty reputable, being on the radio and all.

Next thing I'm going to hear is that you can't trust everything on the internet. Crazy world we live in...

[photon]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Good info in the bump. Whatever happened in your situation Photon?

Nothin.

Got a class action suit being considered, but the court worked with the people and E&Y went in and did some auditing and a bunch of other stuff, but until the securities people decide something I don't think there's a lot of stuff going on.

I've moved on basically.

[pylon]

Any type of financial adviser or so called expert in any field that does "Talk to the experts." or any other type program that is staged as an interview, with the intent of securing business, I automatically write off as a scam now. You are opening the dialogue of your sales pitch, with a lie and giant red flag out of the gate, by trying to make it seem as if it is a legit interview, with what is planted callers/questions to only set up ideal answers.

I think there are 4 such companies now, that QR77 has sold airtime to, that has ripped off their listeners. If your product is so good, why hasn't Forbes Magazine, or Fortune picked up your company and done a piece on you. The latest guys trying to hawk gemstones and gold bars has flush your money good bye written all over it.

I think in essence, these shows are starting to have a complete opposite effect as their intent.

[macker]

Originally Posted by V

Wasn't that David Jones feller always on the news with financial advice on the markets every morning? I thought he was pretty reputable, being on the radio and all.

Next thing I'm going to hear is that you can't trust everything on the internet. Crazy world we live in...

Yep.....used to call himself the "Money Doctor" and come on with very annoying updates. Would claim to know the direction of individual stocks and general market direction and would be constantly patting himself on the back "I told you to buy Goldcorp etc.etc. if you followed my advice you would be up 200% etc. etc. As a listener you knew he was full of it and knew he would blow up one day but at the time he was able to reel in many investors. He was never even licensed properly and the Money Doctor was into malpractice in a big way. I have met him and he was not reputable in any way but was all about making a quick buck and not a comfortable living where you could sleep at night. Not even sure if guys like this feel any quilt or if they are able to block it out somehow as they seem soo sure of the lies that they tell

[macker]

So is Walton International the last one standing out of these local land bankers? Beiramar, Shire, Concrete, Wealthstreet etc. etc. Walton is the only one that comes to mind that has been around for the last ten years or so that is still doing what they do and you don't hear horror stories about. Or are there some?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

There’s a paragraph in the Alberta Securities Commission ruling on Concrete Equities Inc. that every investor in the world should be forced to read before signing a document or handing over a cheque.


In a paragraph entitled “Conclusions on Responsibility,” the three members of the ASC panel who wrote the decision –Stephen Murison, Roderick McKay and Neil Murphy – write:

“We earlier noted the following comment of Jones in his submissions: ‘So I guess I should have gone over [the] rule book first. I didn’t know I needed to.’ In response, we say to him – and to any observers who take it upon themselves to engage in the sale of securities in our regulated capital market – yes, you are expected, and required, to be aware of the rules and to abide by them.”

A little more ammo as to why real estate investing seems to be a crapshoot. "I didn't know I needed to know the rules?" FFS!

I'll bet the paltry fine that gets levied won't even be close to what some people have lost.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by pylon

Any type of financial adviser or so called expert in any field that does "Talk to the experts." or any other type program that is staged as an interview, with the intent of securing business, I automatically write off as a scam now. You are opening the dialogue of your sales pitch, with a lie and giant red flag out of the gate, by trying to make it seem as if it is a legit interview, with what is planted callers/questions to only set up ideal answers.

I think there are 4 such companies now, that QR77 has sold airtime to, that has ripped off their listeners. If your product is so good, why hasn't Forbes Magazine, or Fortune picked up your company and done a piece on you. The latest guys trying to hawk gemstones and gold bars has flush your money good bye written all over it.

I think in essence, these shows are starting to have a complete opposite effect as their intent.

I totally get what you're saying here (and basically agree), but I do wonder how advisors can go about marketing themselves? I've never done a "talk to the experts" kind of thing....frankly I don't have any product to flog. I do think that the exposure they seem to generate is huge though. I guess I'm more curious to get an unbiased view of how an advisor would get their name out without looking shady.

That is the problem with these schemes though...they taint the industry in general (understandably) because of a few.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by pylon

I think there are 4 such companies now, that QR77 has sold airtime to, that has ripped off their listeners. If your product is so good, why hasn't Forbes Magazine, or Fortune picked up your company and done a piece on you. The latest guys trying to hawk gemstones and gold bars has flush your money good bye written all over it.

Is there any responsibility that these media outlets have to ensure that products of a financial nature being advertised on their station are actually legitimate?

Or is it pretty much, you can pay for the ad/airtime it's all yours?

[MoneyGuy]

Not all of those who go on Talk to the Experts are scammers. Just saying.

No, I've never done it.

[Hevishot]

Sweetwater Resort is another one to be careful with. The guy running it has already been investigated for fraud (great cars and trucks.com) . I would be suprised if the development ends up being complete.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by macker

Yep.....used to call himself the "Money Doctor" and come on with very annoying updates. Would claim to know the direction of individual stocks and general market direction and would be constantly patting himself on the back "I told you to buy Goldcorp etc.etc. if you followed my advice you would be up 200% etc. etc.

If anyone is that good, why don't he invest his own money and double it every second day instead of humping his services to you on radio? I don't see Buffet doing and he's one of the richest guy in the world. Simple logic, you think.

[Bertuzzied]

Wow. no jail time and only penalties. Take note American swindlers, better do all your ponzi schemes and get rich schemes up here in Canada.

Pathetic.

[jtfrogger]

Whenever I saw the guy on Breakfast Television, he seemed reasonably knowledgeable. That said, it was only on really simple topics such as, "Yes, you should pay off credit card debt before investing" or the basics of how an RRSP works. I never looked into his business.

But this reminds of an IT "expert" that I know that writes the occasional piece for the newspaper. He is a senior project manager with lots of experience, but I would never hire him. In this realm, the really good IT folks do not have time for the media. They are too busy with real work that pays them a lot more. They also don't need the PR, since they have more work than they can handle.

[Cowboy89]

I think what made David Jones and obvious scam to me, even back in his TV days (I did call this if you look back at some of the threads about Wealthstreet), was that he was looking for money for his own managed funds as opposed to just offering advisory services. Then I could see on his website that the funds he was advertising were utter crap. In fact little due diligence was really required to determine what he was investing in. His 'Dragon' fund if I recall correctly was aimed to 'profit from increasing world food demand.' I went on the website and quickly realized from filed documents that all he was doing with these funds was buying with high amounts of leverage cow pasture near Airdrie. The fund was destined to crash the second Calgary Real Estate stopped booming at the same rate it had leading up to 2008.

[macker]

[QUOTE=jtfrogger;3299160]Whenever I saw the guy on Breakfast Television, he seemed reasonably knowledgeable. That said, it was only on really simple topics such as, "Yes, you should pay off credit card debt before investing" or the basics of how an RRSP works. I never looked into his business.




Reminds me of this : http://www.ripoffreport.com/tv-adver...ge-t-824cx.htm

Ironically Denis Waitley wrote the book on "The Psychology of Winning"
and is a best selling author. These people can be incredibly deceptive and Canada has done little to change the way white collar crime is handled. Usually they change industries and start "selling" again.


"When the tide goes out you learn who has been swimming naked" Warren Buffett.