If that's the case then it's no wonder SCIAG are putting out such a distorted version of events by blaming the banks....seems like it's all about directing the heat away from mates and relatives who are former employees of the failed company!
Storm Financial Group
- Thread starter Garpal Gumnut
- Start date
If that's the case then it's no wonder SCIAG are putting out such a distorted version of events by blaming the banks....seems like it's all about directing the heat away from mates and relatives who are former employees of the failed company!
If there is any money to be recovered, it would be from Mr Cassimatis (and his salespeople?) ASIC already recovered from Mr Cassimatis the $2 MILLION he paid himself just days before the company folded.
The SEC in the USA promptly froze all the assets of SIR Allan Stanford. In case you're not familiar with this very recent event, here it is:
QUOTE
The Financial Storm may even pale into insignificance when compared to billionaire Allen Stanford (sorry, Sir Allen, as he now sports the clipped mustache and Saville Row style of English aristocracy following a 2006 knighthood by the Caribbean island of Antigua; he also claimed to be related to the founder of California's Stanford University until the institution filed a trademark infringement suit) who is alleged to have bilked investors of $12.5 BILLION. Depositors flogged to his Bank of Antigua despite, in the hierarchy of offshore banking havens, Antigua being one of the world's least-regulated and least-transparent. As David Marchant, an offshore banking analyst based in Miami, comments, "Antigua was the wild west and Stanford was the chief cowboy. In their greedy desire to avoid paying a 15 to 20 percent tax, they put their money with an offshore crook who ultimately taxed them 100 percent." A 50-page indictment showed the scam dated back to September 1999 and continued until about February 17 this year. In Antigua they're already calling him Sir Allen SCAM-ford!
UNQUOTE
I am surprised how localised and little-reported this Storm Financial mess is, at least down here in the Deep South. And nowhere is there a thorough investigative exposé of the man himself! Is investigative journalism dead or has it to do with our onerous libel and privacy laws?
I was caught out years ago by someone who, despite quite obviously bilking people, won his case on a legal technicality. He walked away with $85,000, leaving me shaking my head and asking my lawyer if there is no register that tracked such people as he had quite obviously done similar things before and would do them again. "Sorry," said my lawyer, "our privacy laws prevent us from doing this." Charles Dickens was right. "The law is an ass."
The SEC in the USA promptly froze all the assets of SIR Allan Stanford. In case you're not familiar with this very recent event, here it is:
QUOTE
The Financial Storm may even pale into insignificance when compared to billionaire Allen Stanford (sorry, Sir Allen, as he now sports the clipped mustache and Saville Row style of English aristocracy following a 2006 knighthood by the Caribbean island of Antigua; he also claimed to be related to the founder of California's Stanford University until the institution filed a trademark infringement suit) who is alleged to have bilked investors of $12.5 BILLION. Depositors flogged to his Bank of Antigua despite, in the hierarchy of offshore banking havens, Antigua being one of the world's least-regulated and least-transparent. As David Marchant, an offshore banking analyst based in Miami, comments, "Antigua was the wild west and Stanford was the chief cowboy. In their greedy desire to avoid paying a 15 to 20 percent tax, they put their money with an offshore crook who ultimately taxed them 100 percent." A 50-page indictment showed the scam dated back to September 1999 and continued until about February 17 this year. In Antigua they're already calling him Sir Allen SCAM-ford!
UNQUOTE
I am surprised how localised and little-reported this Storm Financial mess is, at least down here in the Deep South. And nowhere is there a thorough investigative exposé of the man himself! Is investigative journalism dead or has it to do with our onerous libel and privacy laws?
I was caught out years ago by someone who, despite quite obviously bilking people, won his case on a legal technicality. He walked away with $85,000, leaving me shaking my head and asking my lawyer if there is no register that tracked such people as he had quite obviously done similar things before and would do them again. "Sorry," said my lawyer, "our privacy laws prevent us from doing this." Charles Dickens was right. "The law is an ass."
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Hi guys, long time reader of this thread (back on about page 20-30 odd), but due to having a filthy hotmail account, I wasn't able to comment. Alas, all is good now.
Just wanted to throw some insight into this debacle from someone who probably should have known better, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Solly posted what was my submission into the Parliamentary Inquiry earlier, I won't link it again, but you can probably piece together which one it was noting my hatred of a certain Colonial Margin Lending....
Emotional rhetoric aside, I am still bloody livid over the whole affair. Both with Storm and the CBA/Colonial. Most of the whole story in terms of getting involved with Storm is in my submission, but there were a few things that may prove interesting little asides:
1. Risk management. Risk was discussed at length, and the plethora of paperwork we were given outlined that investing in 'shares was an inherently risky activity' quite plainly. So why we now have people bleating about not being a little nervous when they had 1.2+ million dollar margin loans is beyond me. We had to view and sign EVERY page of the Storm documentation which explained the entire process clearly. In my anger post-collapse I double checked it to see if I had had the wool pulled over my eyes....alas, I couldn't really fault it. We had signed it saying we understood it. We were given the option of taking it to an accountant/lawyer before signing. We even took it all home and digested it before returning it.
For people to say 'oh I was tricked into it! Give me my financial position pre-Storm back' is laughable. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't urinate on EC if he was on fire in the street, but people have themselves to blame for their level of debt.
2. Colonial/CBA. My biggest bugbear with these clowns is that they happily lent us what I consider a modest increase based on our assets ($27 000) one week for the purposes of increasing our Index Fund, but then sold it all down ONE and FOUR weeks later, when we weren't even in Margin Call. No matter your position, the whole fund got sold at basement prices. Who the hell 'bought' these shares? I had NO way of checking my LVR and received NO bank statements from Colonial for the months of Oct-Nov. People say 'oh well you should have known' but let's get one thing clear, I PAID a licensed body to look after my affairs and was paying monthly repayments to an establishment that prides itself on 'having a personal relationship with their customers'. ONE phonecall would have saved my investment and I would have either shifted to cash (as I had previously directed them to), or injected more into it. Blaming people for going 120% into Margin Call is like paying a doctor to operate on you, but then cutting yourself open to 'check' his/her work. I accept the losses I made, and I have learned some very good lessons.
3. The 'Bank/Storm' Relationship. A few little interesting things have come up that we remember since we started going in there. I remember that the Storm staff had just gotten back from Europe and our advisor was telling us about how much fun him and his g/f had. I asked 'how much was it?' and his reply was 'apparently the banks picked up a lot of the tab mate, no idea why. I'm not going to complain, we'll have to get you guys along next year!'
While I don't feel particularly sorry for my advisor (he was about late-20's, same age as us and had just started at Storm) I asked him in Dec 08 what his feelings were regarding his future job prospects with Storm. He told me, 'mate, I've been told that we are all fine and that there is enough money to get us through this downturn. I'm abotu to go overseas with the g/f for Christmas and I can tell you now I wouldn't be leaving without having a job to come back to.' Poor bastard, he probably found out overseas that he was unemployed with no benefits/salary paid. Oh well, his price for his involvement in Storm is a now no-doubt toxic resume.
4. SICAG. Pretty dodgy if you ask me, and some good points raised by previous posters. The whole 'it was the evil banks, EC/JC are innocent!' reeks of sycophants dining at a certain table in Belmont every other week. My family in Brisbane (who recommended Storm to me) went through O'Brien/Jelich and Co. and they dropped their clients like a hot potato when it all went down.
My brother realised there were warning signs with the Redcliffe branch of Storm (and how cavalier they were getting) when a certain house on the Redcliffe shoreline went up for sale and my brother's adviser was telling him how Ron Jelich was going to buy this 'edifice' for the new Brisbane Storm HQ.
I think the house is the epitome of architectual evil; a huge yellow monstrosity that looks like it was designed by a kindergarden student, but it sold a few years ago via auction for ~$2.6 million. Apparently O'Brien told my brother that Jelich rang the auctioneer (realising he had missed the auction) and said 'is the buyer still there?' to which it was responded 'yes'. The story goes that Jelich told the buyer to wait there, walked up to him and offered him another $400-600k on top of the price he just bought it at. The final scary nail in the coffin was that the hose wasn't zoned half commercial, so it proved useless to Storm. Alas, this was pretty much a sign of their attitude to their perceived unending supply of money in the end.
I even heard that one Storm employee was using the infamous company jet for flying lessons at some point....but I can't back that up in concrete.
Anyway, someone I know has just been offered a very large sum (six figures) from the CBA to make this whole thing go away. It doesn't get them back where they were (and neither should it noting again, the RISK they willingly took) but it has allowed them to retire with peace of mind. So for thsoe saying the banks aren't at fault, clearly the banks lawyers don't seem to think so....
If you have any more questions, let me know....I'm happy to rain on Storm's parade as a disgruntled customer.
Just wanted to throw some insight into this debacle from someone who probably should have known better, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Solly posted what was my submission into the Parliamentary Inquiry earlier, I won't link it again, but you can probably piece together which one it was noting my hatred of a certain Colonial Margin Lending....
Emotional rhetoric aside, I am still bloody livid over the whole affair. Both with Storm and the CBA/Colonial. Most of the whole story in terms of getting involved with Storm is in my submission, but there were a few things that may prove interesting little asides:
1. Risk management. Risk was discussed at length, and the plethora of paperwork we were given outlined that investing in 'shares was an inherently risky activity' quite plainly. So why we now have people bleating about not being a little nervous when they had 1.2+ million dollar margin loans is beyond me. We had to view and sign EVERY page of the Storm documentation which explained the entire process clearly. In my anger post-collapse I double checked it to see if I had had the wool pulled over my eyes....alas, I couldn't really fault it. We had signed it saying we understood it. We were given the option of taking it to an accountant/lawyer before signing. We even took it all home and digested it before returning it.
For people to say 'oh I was tricked into it! Give me my financial position pre-Storm back' is laughable. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't urinate on EC if he was on fire in the street, but people have themselves to blame for their level of debt.
2. Colonial/CBA. My biggest bugbear with these clowns is that they happily lent us what I consider a modest increase based on our assets ($27 000) one week for the purposes of increasing our Index Fund, but then sold it all down ONE and FOUR weeks later, when we weren't even in Margin Call. No matter your position, the whole fund got sold at basement prices. Who the hell 'bought' these shares? I had NO way of checking my LVR and received NO bank statements from Colonial for the months of Oct-Nov. People say 'oh well you should have known' but let's get one thing clear, I PAID a licensed body to look after my affairs and was paying monthly repayments to an establishment that prides itself on 'having a personal relationship with their customers'. ONE phonecall would have saved my investment and I would have either shifted to cash (as I had previously directed them to), or injected more into it. Blaming people for going 120% into Margin Call is like paying a doctor to operate on you, but then cutting yourself open to 'check' his/her work. I accept the losses I made, and I have learned some very good lessons.
3. The 'Bank/Storm' Relationship. A few little interesting things have come up that we remember since we started going in there. I remember that the Storm staff had just gotten back from Europe and our advisor was telling us about how much fun him and his g/f had. I asked 'how much was it?' and his reply was 'apparently the banks picked up a lot of the tab mate, no idea why. I'm not going to complain, we'll have to get you guys along next year!'
While I don't feel particularly sorry for my advisor (he was about late-20's, same age as us and had just started at Storm) I asked him in Dec 08 what his feelings were regarding his future job prospects with Storm. He told me, 'mate, I've been told that we are all fine and that there is enough money to get us through this downturn. I'm abotu to go overseas with the g/f for Christmas and I can tell you now I wouldn't be leaving without having a job to come back to.' Poor bastard, he probably found out overseas that he was unemployed with no benefits/salary paid. Oh well, his price for his involvement in Storm is a now no-doubt toxic resume.
4. SICAG. Pretty dodgy if you ask me, and some good points raised by previous posters. The whole 'it was the evil banks, EC/JC are innocent!' reeks of sycophants dining at a certain table in Belmont every other week. My family in Brisbane (who recommended Storm to me) went through O'Brien/Jelich and Co. and they dropped their clients like a hot potato when it all went down.
My brother realised there were warning signs with the Redcliffe branch of Storm (and how cavalier they were getting) when a certain house on the Redcliffe shoreline went up for sale and my brother's adviser was telling him how Ron Jelich was going to buy this 'edifice' for the new Brisbane Storm HQ.
I think the house is the epitome of architectual evil; a huge yellow monstrosity that looks like it was designed by a kindergarden student, but it sold a few years ago via auction for ~$2.6 million. Apparently O'Brien told my brother that Jelich rang the auctioneer (realising he had missed the auction) and said 'is the buyer still there?' to which it was responded 'yes'. The story goes that Jelich told the buyer to wait there, walked up to him and offered him another $400-600k on top of the price he just bought it at. The final scary nail in the coffin was that the hose wasn't zoned half commercial, so it proved useless to Storm. Alas, this was pretty much a sign of their attitude to their perceived unending supply of money in the end.
I even heard that one Storm employee was using the infamous company jet for flying lessons at some point....but I can't back that up in concrete.
Anyway, someone I know has just been offered a very large sum (six figures) from the CBA to make this whole thing go away. It doesn't get them back where they were (and neither should it noting again, the RISK they willingly took) but it has allowed them to retire with peace of mind. So for thsoe saying the banks aren't at fault, clearly the banks lawyers don't seem to think so....
If you have any more questions, let me know....I'm happy to rain on Storm's parade as a disgruntled customer.
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I am a CBA shareholder, so I am annoyed they have stuffed things such that they now have a liability.
IMHO, if their is natural justice, where customers went over 100% margin, that is the fault of Storm/CGI/CBA etc, not the client, and as Storm is no longer around to be liable, that means the lender should be, if not legally, then morally.
Not sure what happened re Opus Prime/ ANZ but I think they settled many on that basis.
As well, if the bank allowed dodgy loans to be processed, and it can be shown that bank employees were negligent or culpable, well that could mean that the home mortgage may be reduced, or even wiped.
Which would leave the client minus 100% of their original investment, but no margin loan and a house still.
Dont know how much that would cost, but thats how I would look at settling it if I had the magic wand.
More likely they will probably p!ss away a portion of that amount with legal fees and inquiry costs
IMHO, if their is natural justice, where customers went over 100% margin, that is the fault of Storm/CGI/CBA etc, not the client, and as Storm is no longer around to be liable, that means the lender should be, if not legally, then morally.
Not sure what happened re Opus Prime/ ANZ but I think they settled many on that basis.
As well, if the bank allowed dodgy loans to be processed, and it can be shown that bank employees were negligent or culpable, well that could mean that the home mortgage may be reduced, or even wiped.
Which would leave the client minus 100% of their original investment, but no margin loan and a house still.
Dont know how much that would cost, but thats how I would look at settling it if I had the magic wand.
More likely they will probably p!ss away a portion of that amount with legal fees and inquiry costs
"Ironhalo", you seem to be well on your way to a full recovery from this disaster! And the lesson learnt will be invaluable in the future!
The down-selling of assets by Colonial seems reminiscent of the panicky sell-off by the ANZ Bank during the Opes-Prime disaster. These margin-call procedures don't appear to be anything like an online computer-automated stop-loss order. Instead, they required that the lender first contact the borrowers to give them the option to top up with extra funds before pulling the trigger on the underlying security. Given the number of clients and the limited number of bank staff, it is difficult to see how these financial institutions could have gone through the whole process in a timely and orderly fashion.
As for your frank and outspoken assessment of ex-Stormers' bleating, I invite you to watch again the video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KLUKsI-4Xs&feature=player_embedded and the lady's interjection' "We don't understand what we were doing." That same person would've probably jumped up and down at Woolies for having been overcharged on a bag of potato chips.
The down-selling of assets by Colonial seems reminiscent of the panicky sell-off by the ANZ Bank during the Opes-Prime disaster. These margin-call procedures don't appear to be anything like an online computer-automated stop-loss order. Instead, they required that the lender first contact the borrowers to give them the option to top up with extra funds before pulling the trigger on the underlying security. Given the number of clients and the limited number of bank staff, it is difficult to see how these financial institutions could have gone through the whole process in a timely and orderly fashion.
As for your frank and outspoken assessment of ex-Stormers' bleating, I invite you to watch again the video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KLUKsI-4Xs&feature=player_embedded and the lady's interjection' "We don't understand what we were doing." That same person would've probably jumped up and down at Woolies for having been overcharged on a bag of potato chips.
Well, "awg", we all will pay for this through higher bank charges. The outright winners, as so often, are the lawyers! Didn't I read somewhere that their fee is 30% of each client's settlement? Would that be in addition to the legal fees the CBA has since offered to pay?
I note that the Bank of Queensland said that they had no margin loans with Storm clients and that all their loans were mortgage-backed housing loans.
I note that the Bank of Queensland said that they had no margin loans with Storm clients and that all their loans were mortgage-backed housing loans.
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Hey Onlooker, Farencue et al, good to be here.
As for the risk assessment, it was done via Storm. Now that you say it, my g/f just reminded me that one line was used over and over again, 'if Storm were to collapse tomorrow, your index fund remains in your name and would not be impacted....our only money made is via upfront fees and for step installments that you may make through us, so there is no risk you will lose your fund.'
We were working with an ongoing margin loan (which we paid Storm ~$3k in fees to set up and maintain); imagine our chagrin when I found that out of the $1000 a month we were putting into the scheme via our own payments and the regular margin increases by Colonial, Storm was taking 6.6% ($66) a month for doing 2/5ths of nothing. I rang my adviser and got this changed instantly, as why would we have paid upfront fees only to pay extra each month?
Mate, while I feel sorry for these people that are now destitute, surely the alarm bells must have been ringing when they were being asked to take away paperwork outlining $1.2million margin loans when they were on $40k incomes or even worse, pensions. I am of the opinion that these people saw the pretty numbers, thought they were 'playing with the big boys' and were preparing to spend their twilight years clinking champagne glasses together on the balcony of their Gold Coast apartment in some form of parodied cliche retirement advertisement.
The person who I mentioned that got offered the big bikkies by CBA wasn't leveraged to this amount (and there is no way in hell I would have let them get to that point, such was my advice), but the best they still had to look forward to was starting a 25 year mortgage at the age of 55 from scratch. Needless to say, they are in a LOT better position now, and with their accumulated super, family and friends, and ongoing employment, they are well placed to have a great retirement.
As for me, even though my loss was comparatively small, the contempt I was treated with by Colonial would make me all too happy to take them to court for their incompetence, even if the result was out of a completely avoidable $11k loss was that I paid $10,999 in legal fees and walked away with $1. At least the bastards would still be forced to pay for their stupidity.
As for the video, boo freaking hoo. 'We didn't know what we were doing!!!', then why did you happily accept the profits and SIGN the multiple copies of forms you were given by Storm! For all their mistakes/incompetence in the collapse, their paperwork was legit and transparent. No excuses.
'We had 2 margin loans of 2.5million dollars!'..........WTF!?!?!?!?
As for the risk assessment, it was done via Storm. Now that you say it, my g/f just reminded me that one line was used over and over again, 'if Storm were to collapse tomorrow, your index fund remains in your name and would not be impacted....our only money made is via upfront fees and for step installments that you may make through us, so there is no risk you will lose your fund.'
We were working with an ongoing margin loan (which we paid Storm ~$3k in fees to set up and maintain); imagine our chagrin when I found that out of the $1000 a month we were putting into the scheme via our own payments and the regular margin increases by Colonial, Storm was taking 6.6% ($66) a month for doing 2/5ths of nothing. I rang my adviser and got this changed instantly, as why would we have paid upfront fees only to pay extra each month?
Mate, while I feel sorry for these people that are now destitute, surely the alarm bells must have been ringing when they were being asked to take away paperwork outlining $1.2million margin loans when they were on $40k incomes or even worse, pensions. I am of the opinion that these people saw the pretty numbers, thought they were 'playing with the big boys' and were preparing to spend their twilight years clinking champagne glasses together on the balcony of their Gold Coast apartment in some form of parodied cliche retirement advertisement.
The person who I mentioned that got offered the big bikkies by CBA wasn't leveraged to this amount (and there is no way in hell I would have let them get to that point, such was my advice), but the best they still had to look forward to was starting a 25 year mortgage at the age of 55 from scratch. Needless to say, they are in a LOT better position now, and with their accumulated super, family and friends, and ongoing employment, they are well placed to have a great retirement.
As for me, even though my loss was comparatively small, the contempt I was treated with by Colonial would make me all too happy to take them to court for their incompetence, even if the result was out of a completely avoidable $11k loss was that I paid $10,999 in legal fees and walked away with $1. At least the bastards would still be forced to pay for their stupidity.
As for the video, boo freaking hoo. 'We didn't know what we were doing!!!', then why did you happily accept the profits and SIGN the multiple copies of forms you were given by Storm! For all their mistakes/incompetence in the collapse, their paperwork was legit and transparent. No excuses.
'We had 2 margin loans of 2.5million dollars!'..........WTF!?!?!?!?
"Ironhalo", my sentiment entirely! I couldn't have put it better myself: WTF!!!
Anyway, anyone who gives money to a financial adviser with a name like Storm should have it taken off them by a responsible adult before they lose the lot. I think, in hindsight you would agree with that, wouldn't you?
Anyway, anyone who gives money to a financial adviser with a name like Storm should have it taken off them by a responsible adult before they lose the lot. I think, in hindsight you would agree with that, wouldn't you?
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The name always struck me as a weird choice, despite their performance.
I think I might start a finance company and name it 'Trainwreck' with the slogan 'the light at the end of the tunnel, is an oncoming train!'
I think I might start a finance company and name it 'Trainwreck' with the slogan 'the light at the end of the tunnel, is an oncoming train!'
Many, many years ago when I worked and lived in Samoa, I encountered an amazing piece of 'local justice': women with pots and sticks in their hands would surround a wrong-doer's house and bang those sticks and pots together all day long and throughout the night until the wrong-doer had made the necessary reparations.
Now I don't want to put ideas into your heads but ...
Nice one, "Ironhalo"; why not start a sister company with the name Tsunami Traders ? (although I heard that Mr Cassimatis already tried to register that one as soon as he gets his new license
Now I don't want to put ideas into your heads but ...
Nice one, "Ironhalo"; why not start a sister company with the name Tsunami Traders ? (although I heard that Mr Cassimatis already tried to register that one as soon as he gets his new license
Thanks Ironhalo.
People are funny creatures, I imagine because there was no pile of cash that the stormers physically handed over to Storm it was kinda like Monopoly money that would magically transform into riches. Their riches. Probably didnt even think of the loss side of the ledger. I bet if they had to hand over physical cash they would have thought twice about it!
Have you ever known anyone that spends like crazy on credit cards without a clue how they will ever repay? Maybe that sort of mentality.
People are funny creatures, I imagine because there was no pile of cash that the stormers physically handed over to Storm it was kinda like Monopoly money that would magically transform into riches. Their riches. Probably didnt even think of the loss side of the ledger. I bet if they had to hand over physical cash they would have thought twice about it!
Have you ever known anyone that spends like crazy on credit cards without a clue how they will ever repay? Maybe that sort of mentality.
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That's the thing, I did Economics at uni, I'm doing an MBA (or Mediocre But Arrogant as I like to call it) so I'm not an idiot when it comes to understanding finances.
The whole Storm involvement was one of convenience, I pay them a fee, and I don't really have to stress about monitoring LVR's etc while I was at sea saving valiantly saving our shorelines from evil Indo fishermen and illegal immigrants...
I should have known better, and now I do. Lesson learned. The thing is though, is that when Storm went ****-up, I didn't care that I now had to take an active interest in my index fund, I was more angry that my upfront fees to Storm were now rendered null and void.
What really made me apoplectic with rage was watching my perfectly healthy and managed fund sold from under me with no consultation in the name of panic and incompetence. How can a non-risky and well serviced loan taken out two weeks prior suddenly go into Margin Call? I even placed $5000 of my own money as an extra payment on the $27 000 increase to the margin loan so I wouldn't have to worry about it for some time. The LVR was fine, and under no threat of margin call, even at the near-bottom of the market. Hence why I bought extra.
Colonial will pay. And I'll happily laugh the day EC is booted out of Casa Para'diso in Belmont and is forced to offer 'hand shandies' for spare change to passing cars in the Valley.
The whole Storm involvement was one of convenience, I pay them a fee, and I don't really have to stress about monitoring LVR's etc while I was at sea saving valiantly saving our shorelines from evil Indo fishermen and illegal immigrants...
I should have known better, and now I do. Lesson learned. The thing is though, is that when Storm went ****-up, I didn't care that I now had to take an active interest in my index fund, I was more angry that my upfront fees to Storm were now rendered null and void.
What really made me apoplectic with rage was watching my perfectly healthy and managed fund sold from under me with no consultation in the name of panic and incompetence. How can a non-risky and well serviced loan taken out two weeks prior suddenly go into Margin Call? I even placed $5000 of my own money as an extra payment on the $27 000 increase to the margin loan so I wouldn't have to worry about it for some time. The LVR was fine, and under no threat of margin call, even at the near-bottom of the market. Hence why I bought extra.
Colonial will pay. And I'll happily laugh the day EC is booted out of Casa Para'diso in Belmont and is forced to offer 'hand shandies' for spare change to passing cars in the Valley.
Based on what you have said Ironhalo I will be watching Colonial with interest.
The fishermen are another story, I worked at a hospital in the Northern Territory that overnight became a medical checkpoint for those that were detained before they were flown at taxpayer expense to Darwin for "processing".
But I digress, thanks again for the info.
The fishermen are another story, I worked at a hospital in the Northern Territory that overnight became a medical checkpoint for those that were detained before they were flown at taxpayer expense to Darwin for "processing".
But I digress, thanks again for the info.
A fitting summing-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrNCncdkC5Q&feature=related
Quincy
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Here's an article that came out today : -
Bank of Queensland defends connection with Storm Financial clients
Bank of Queensland Ltd (BoQ) says there is no evidence of dishonest practices by the bank in connection with Storm Financial clients.
BoQ sought on Thursday to clarify its position given what it said was "significant misinformation" in the media about its dealings with Storm Financial and Storm customer accounts.
Based on "the bank's knowledge and enquiries to date", it said, "there is no evidence of improper or dishonest practices or conduct by the bank in connection with Storm clients".
BoQ said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange that there also was "no evidence that the bank has engaged in any misleading and deceptive conduct or unconscionable conduct in relation to its lending to Storm clients".
More here : http://www.businessspectator.com.au...Queensland-caught-in-Storm-TC4PL?OpenDocument
AAP - 12:44 PM, 25 Jun 2009
Bank of Queensland defends connection with Storm Financial clients
Bank of Queensland Ltd (BoQ) says there is no evidence of dishonest practices by the bank in connection with Storm Financial clients.
BoQ sought on Thursday to clarify its position given what it said was "significant misinformation" in the media about its dealings with Storm Financial and Storm customer accounts.
Based on "the bank's knowledge and enquiries to date", it said, "there is no evidence of improper or dishonest practices or conduct by the bank in connection with Storm clients".
BoQ said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange that there also was "no evidence that the bank has engaged in any misleading and deceptive conduct or unconscionable conduct in relation to its lending to Storm clients".
More here : http://www.businessspectator.com.au...Queensland-caught-in-Storm-TC4PL?OpenDocument
AAP - 12:44 PM, 25 Jun 2009
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I have heard some whispers that Bank Of Queensland maybe changing their position from that in their press release they put out today - maybe the PR spin doctors arent running BOQ any more.
So for all those BOQ storm victims fingers crossed for some welcome news.... I for one will be reading the friday edition of the Financial Review !!!!
So for all those BOQ storm victims fingers crossed for some welcome news.... I for one will be reading the friday edition of the Financial Review !!!!
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Another two submissions of interest to the
Inquiry into Financial Products and Services in Australia.
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/fps/submissions/sub96.pdf
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/fps/submissions/sub100.pdf
Inquiry into Financial Products and Services in Australia.
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/fps/submissions/sub96.pdf
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/fps/submissions/sub100.pdf
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"More good news for Storm Financial investors"
"It is good news for hundreds of Peninsula-based Storm investors, including Steve Hart who stated on television that he had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But others like Clontarf retirees David and Isabel Dowling ``lost everything’’ and were forced to sell their family homes to repay their debts.
Luke Vogel, a former Storm Financial adviser, and his wife Niki, of Scarborough, said they had lost $400,000 since the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) sold their shares.."
More by Paul Lancaster in the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald;
http://redcliffe-and-bayside-herald.whereilive.com.au/news/story/more-good-news-for-storm-financial-investors/
"It is good news for hundreds of Peninsula-based Storm investors, including Steve Hart who stated on television that he had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But others like Clontarf retirees David and Isabel Dowling ``lost everything’’ and were forced to sell their family homes to repay their debts.
Luke Vogel, a former Storm Financial adviser, and his wife Niki, of Scarborough, said they had lost $400,000 since the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) sold their shares.."
More by Paul Lancaster in the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald;
http://redcliffe-and-bayside-herald.whereilive.com.au/news/story/more-good-news-for-storm-financial-investors/
"Solly", some of those submissions appear like clutching at straws. Mr & Mrs Clare's call their loan application "false" but they do not say who declared those "false" income figures. Are they suggesting that they signed a blank application form and allowed some other person to fill in the blanks afterwards?
While, with some difficulty, I can feel some sympathy for some of those old and penniless pensioners who tried to better their lot, I fail to see why Mr & Mrs Clare, close to retirement age and with a $1.35 million home and an annual income of approx. $65,000, would want to enter into a high-risk poker-game to make even more money?
They take issue with the "falsely" declared annual income of $142,111 by writing, "If we did [have such an income], we certainly would not be borrowing money to make more." Why, was $65,000 a year not enough?
At the time they applied for two CBA margin loans totalling $850,000, they already had an NBA margin loan of an unspecified sum on which they paid between $7,500 and $11,000 a month in interest. That would suggest that the NBA margin loan was around $1 million. What madness made them want to load up with another $850,000 in debt ? If that is not greed, I don't know what is!
While, with some difficulty, I can feel some sympathy for some of those old and penniless pensioners who tried to better their lot, I fail to see why Mr & Mrs Clare, close to retirement age and with a $1.35 million home and an annual income of approx. $65,000, would want to enter into a high-risk poker-game to make even more money?
They take issue with the "falsely" declared annual income of $142,111 by writing, "If we did [have such an income], we certainly would not be borrowing money to make more." Why, was $65,000 a year not enough?
At the time they applied for two CBA margin loans totalling $850,000, they already had an NBA margin loan of an unspecified sum on which they paid between $7,500 and $11,000 a month in interest. That would suggest that the NBA margin loan was around $1 million. What madness made them want to load up with another $850,000 in debt ? If that is not greed, I don't know what is!
