Thursday, June 13, 2013
Hard to sympathize 2
Last year a local investment fraudster named Hiatt was convicted. I found that I couldn't sympathize with the 'victims' in that case because they were all rich enough to check basic facts. The 'victims' were doctors and lawyers who felt free to toss around a half million. If you have the resources to gamble on that scale, you also have the resources to determine whether a patent exists or whether a corporation actually does any business. No sympathy.
And here we go again.
A former Spokane man persuaded 50 investors to pay about $1.5 million to build an ethanol plant on the West Plains that never materialized, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court Wednesday. Robert J. Braun, 53, faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million after he was indicted on 27 felony counts of wire and securities fraud. Court records say that instead of building the ethanol plant, Braun used the money to pay mortgages on three homes, for department store and clothing purchases, for car loans and to subsidize a women’s shoe and accessory store that he owned in Spokane.Dividing 1.5 million by 50 investors = 30K each. Not the same level as the previous fraud, but still a substantial amount of money to risk on one dubious scheme. Of course any sane investor would turn away instantly when he saw the word ethanol, since the whole ethanol "industry" is a fraud from the start. It's solely designed to grab government subsidies. It's parallel to the British banksters who are charged with manipulating the LIBOR. The LIBOR is not a natural part of banking or business; it was invented BY THE BANKSTERS in 1984, solely to make their criminal acts easier to organize. It's a single knob that controls the whole banking system. Since the knob itself is a criminal device, turning the knob "the wrong way" can't be called a crime as such. It's only an unfashionable style of committing the same crime that other banksters commit "the right way." ¶ 2:54 AM
