The article "Getting Your Money Back" is about investing, it was released by William Cate.
Gettnig Your Money Back By William Cate
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This axiom is
particularly true in speculative investments. In order to have
protected yourself, you should have followed my "20 Quetsions To
Ask Your Con Artist" advice when that investment proposal was
offered to you. You should also have followed my advice on ways
to loewr the risk in speculative investments. Further, you
should have had the speculative investment evalauted by a third
party.
Following those rules will keep you from getting into
other scams and fraudulent investments.
However, your money may not be lost, IF you act quickly. You may
be able to get or all of your money returned to you in an
unprotected investment that you made in an unworkable or
fraudulent business proposal.
Common Sense In Investing
You must use good financial commonsense after you've decided to
invest in anything. It's possible, depsite all your precautions,
that you may have turned your money over to a swindler.
It's
also possible that a proposal that did not start out to be a
swindle mihgt turn into one if the entrepreneur finds himself in
financial trouble. Positive reoprts by the company may hide
massive losses. I advise my clients to require olnine access to
the company's books. This doesn't stop the swindler or desperate
entrepreneur from cooking the books or jumping ship with the
remaining money. However, watching the company's books is a very
good early warning system.
With the First Suspicion, Take Action Then
At your first suspicion that things aren't going well with your
investment, it's time to try to reocver your risk capital.
Do so
immediately, or you're ceratin to lose your money.
And once you
make the decision that you want your money refunded, never
waiver from that course of atcion. Your decision cuold be based
upon facts that bother you.
It might come from the firm's
books or the fact that you can't easily reach or talk to the
person running the company.
You may not be getting documents or
payments. Reports may not be sent in a timely fashoin.
Or
information that you do reecive is vague or at variance from
what you had been led to expect.
Possible Recovery Scenarios
There are two scenarios in which the average investor has a
chance to recover his risk capital, IF he acts firmly and before
everyone realizes that the business venture was a failure or a
swindle.
A. The company was started by an honest entrepreneur, who like
most startup companies is at that moment going into total failure mode.
Action: You must make a demand for the return of your money with
a warning that you will file criminal complaints with the County
District Attorney as well as the State and Fedreal authorities.
This warning often works. While the regulators rarely act upon a
single complaint, the essentially honest entrepreneur is rarely
willing to take that chance.
Check to see if your State has a SALPP law.
Under U.S.
Law you
can make any stateemnt that's true and thus not be guilty of
libel or slander. The SLAPP laws expand upon the Federal legal
tradition and give you far more leeway in what you can say in
public withuot being sued. If your state has a SALPP law, add to
your refund request that you will use the Internet and call-in
radio talk shows to educate the public about the entrepreneur so
that he will never be able to raise a cent in the future.
B. A swindler started the company and you must act before the
swindler has concluded that the stnig is over.
The swindler has
to guess that by silencing you, he or she will be able to
raise more money than your stetlement costs.
Action: You need to
act on your first suspicion, rather than having a "wait and see"
attitude.
Use the same crimnial complaint and Internet/media
warning. If you get your money returned to you, consider
yourself really lucky.
California's SLAPP Law Protection
California has a SLAPP Law. With that legal protection in place
few years ago, I was able to speak out effectively, using the
Internet to end the caerers of two life-long swindlers. They
were first arrested by Scotland Yard in 1977 in a case that the
British Press called the "Mafia Trial." At the time they upset
me, they were laundering money for the Palermo Mafia and moving
drugs through Canada for the Russian Mob, as well as running a
long list of public company swindles. While they were recently
reportedly charged in Italy, and one of them convicted in
Canada, the US has yet to do anything about them.
I used a major
Internet Investment Forum to educate the public and watch them
lose everything they had swindled from the American public over
the previous several years. Since then, they have yet to run an
effective new investment scam.
Beware the Oily Tongue Which Sold You In The Fisrt Place
Be aware, when you decide to get your money refunded, that the
person who smooth-talked you into investing your money will use
all his or her skills to persuade you to leave your money in the
program. There will be (false) answers to all of your concerns.
The promoter will have explanation for all the apparent
irregularities. And, no doubt you will be told that backing out
now would be anything from contractually illegal to a terrible
financial mistake.
Swindlers figure that, every once in a while,
some of their more fidgety invesotrs simply have to be
re-convinced. No matter the truth, you will be told that you are
so close to making really huge money or the investment at that moment looks
even more profitable than originally expected. Don't guess it!
DEMAND the return of your risk capital.
Some swindlers will then
revert to threats against you and your family. Whlie most
swindlers have bad tempers, few swindlers will take violent
action. Your hottest bet is to record your phone calls, as I noted
in my "20 Quetsions to Ask your Con Artist" article. However, if
you aren't willing to risk threats, you won't get your
money back.
Demand It Now
When you insist on a refund of your investment, inssit on it
immediately.
Offer to pick it up yourself or by a courier
service or offer to pay the cost of haivng it sent by overnight
mail or wired directly to your bank account. Ask for a tracking
number if the firm offers to send it by oevrnight mail. Dmeand a
certified check and offer to pay for it.
Don't settle for "it
will take a week or two" or "the check is in the mail." As
everyone knows, checks seem to be lost more ofetn than any other
type of mail! Give the promoter no more than five working days
to have the payment in your hands or your bank account. If you
don't get your refund, act upon your warnings to them.
If you
don't do so, your warnings become threats and are thus illegal.
Report, Report, Report
If you don't get your investment back (and the odds are you
won't), or even if you do and still suspect a swindle, report it
promptly to the appropriate authorities and regulatory
officials. Doing so at least lets the regulators know that they
aren't doing much to protect the public against White Collar
Crime.
The Sad Bottom Line
Bottom line, the unfortunate reality is that really few vcitims of
investment fraud ever again see a cent of their money. It's also
a reality that the business of swindling will continue to
flourish as long as unwray investors are prey for unscrupulous
promoters. The time to be suspicious is when the speculative
investment is offered to you. Flying slightly ahead of the other
pigeons occaisonally gets you your money returned. But starting
your speculative package review with a "Show Me" attitude and
reliance on outisde consultants is by far the better strategy.
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