Storm Financial Group

[Mash]

Thats right Julia, the question for Mash is who falsified the documents?

Mash says the banks accepted unsigned documents.

from whom were the documents accepted Mash?

From Storm without any input from the client....once again.. you have all been told this many many many times before...the banks were in bed with storm.... they accepted storm figures without checking their validity.... they got their bonus for " lender of the year".. do you actually think some little branch in Townsville had more "clients" coming through the door than a branch in Sydney or Melbourne... hellooooo.... now they are ducking for cover and saying we did nothing wrong... yes you did.... guilt by association with cassimatis...

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

and there lies the rub Mash.

You say that the banks say you are responsible to monitor your own investments yet to deal with your portfolio you had to go through your advisor.

If you signed over authority to Storm (which was also posed as a question which you havent answered yet) then they are acting on your behalf, but ultimately you should be aware of what they are up to on your behalf.

Have you obtained a court order? The Freedom of Information Act should have provision for you but Im sure you have looked into that already. Did you receive a letter from the bank stating you had to have a court order or is it because the whole matter is in ASICs hands now that you are unable to get a copy?

I suspect it is the latter because it sounds as though you DID sign over authority to Storm to act on your behalf and so the copy of the loan documentation would have been in their possession, which of course is now in the hands of ASIC.

The rest of your rhetoric I gracefully will ignore. If you would like to educate me on the FACTS then please feel free to supply the FACTS. Anecdotes and rhetoric does not give me an education.

From this and other posts it appears that sicag.info credibiliy falls by the minute,

gg

 

[Soft Dough]

From Storm without any input from the client

So the copies of these documents that the banks have are unsigned?

 

[Julia]

Farencue


So if it's in print that makes it true...guess what?..... the banks are lying through their teeth...have you not heard of spin doctors...the PR department..they are lying ..... On one hand the lenders say it is your responsibility to monitor your investment and loan but should you ask them to cash in the portfolio to pay down the loan they insisted you deal through the advisor and would not take direction from the client.... Pray tell...how does one do both! This question is one the lenders choose not to answer... My bank has refused to supply my loan docs without a court order..... what do they have to hide ?????

Well who signed the forms then?

So what you are saying, is that all erroneous forms were not signed by the clients, and that these forms are still unsigned?



Where do you get your facts from?



Just go to your filing cabinet and get your photocopy out.

Mash, so can you confirm that what you are saying unequivocally is that :

1. Storm falsified the loan documents

2. You did not at any stage sign agreement for Storm to act on your behalf which in turn would mean that,

3. The bank were duty bound to contact you, not Storm, in the event of margin call

4. You engaged in whatever you engaged in with Storm without ensuring you had a copy for yourself of all the related documentation.

If the above points are not correct, then it would be good if you could correct them so that we can be clear about what you are alleging.

 

[Farencue]

Julia

If those are the points Mash is making, then my prediction still stands.
Criminal charges will be brought against Storm and NOT the banks.

Mash, if you care to answer a few of the questions put to you I also have another one to add: What is it SICAG will do for you that ASIC wont?

Also the answer to your question "Pray tell...how does one do both! This question is one the lenders choose not to answer..."

I dont think its the banks not choosing to answer Mash, you cant do both, either you were in charge of whatever you were doing with your investments or Storm were. I dont think you would be discussing this here if it wasnt Storm who had the authority to act on your behalf.

Again, its terrible what has happened to the people who believed in Mr Cassimatis and his ilk.

 

[Farencue]

From Storm without any input from the client....once again.. you have all been told this many many many times before...the banks were in bed with storm.... they accepted storm figures without checking their validity.... they got their bonus for " lender of the year".. do you actually think some little branch in Townsville had more "clients" coming through the door than a branch in Sydney or Melbourne... hellooooo.... now they are ducking for cover and saying we did nothing wrong... yes you did.... guilt by association with cassimatis...

Ah Mash, silly me, I get it now. Your argument is that the onus was on the banks to check figures supplied by licensed financial planners who are required to abide by regulations set down by ASIC, and who are also required to provide true and accurate information. I havent checked the regulations but I am presuming that falsifying documents is against the regulations. I'll check on that and get back to you.

Of course the onus would never be on Storm to provide non falsified documents, although there is a very big chance ASIC might not think so.
Probably because it's illegal but what the hey...

Im thinking too Mash you are pretty involved with SICAG because you use "we" and so I also understand now why you defend them and their agenda. Thats cool Mash, every dog has its day so they say!

 

[Solly]

"When the truth is buried deliberately in the detail"

"To disclose should mean to expose, to reveal, to allow the truth to be known. But in financial planning, disclosure now refers instead to impenetrable documents - reams of paper containing line after line of fine print."

"Graeme and Susan McDonald invested with the failed the Townsville financial planner Storm Financial. According to their submission, their aim was to pay their own way in retirement so they would not be a burden on the taxpayer."


See more by Ruth Williams in Business Day here in the SMH

http://business.smh.com.au/business/when-the-truth-is-buried-deliberately-in-the-detail-20090508-ay1o.html?page=1

 

[Solly]

"Storm Financial founders ordered to return $2 million dividend"

"STORM Financial founders Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis have been ordered to return a contentious $2 million `dividend' they paid themselves in the dying days of the wealth adviser late last year."

"Those funds will now be used to pay the employee entitlements in full," Mr Buckby said.

Story by Tony Raggatt is here in the Townsville Bulletin;

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/05/09/52705_hpnews.html

 

[Solly]

Also in the above article it is reported that Val Llewellyn from the Axial Group who bought the old Townsville Storm premises has turned down the option to acquire the plant and equipment/furnishings. These will now be sold through Grays online.

Some of the items mentioned in Tony Raggatt's story are;

.."French provincial wine tables, Himalayan rugs, Oriental dress torso statues, pink velvet Ottomans, velvet chairs, a cream fabric love seat, leather, fabric and velvet armchairs and lounges, and stacks of office furniture and chairs."

I feel that some of these items would fit in very well in the HQ of Garpal Inc, although for some reason I'm not getting a good picture of the image of gg lounging on a pink velvet Ottoman or canoodling in a cream fabric love seat, dressed in a Hefneresque smoking jacket robe, tipping ash from his Gran Corona.

 

[Farencue]

A quote from the SMH article solly posted (bolding mine)

"I believe you should be focusing less on consumer education and more on the regulating of financial advisers and the type of schemes they currently employ," one Storm submission says. "We, the public, need to be protected from ourselves."

 

[Julia]

I feel that some of these items would fit in very well in the HQ of Garpal Inc, although for some reason I'm not getting a good picture of the image of gg lounging on a pink velvet Ottoman or canoodling in a cream fabric love seat, dressed in a Hefneresque smoking jacket robe, tipping ash from his Gran Corona.

Oh, I don't know, Solly. It's something I think would work pretty well. Maybe add in Garpaldog at gg's well shod feet.

 

[chrisgee]

From Storm without any input from the client....once again.. you have all been told this many many many times before...the banks were in bed with storm.... they accepted storm figures without checking their validity.... they got their bonus for " lender of the year".. do you actually think some little branch in Townsville had more "clients" coming through the door than a branch in Sydney or Melbourne... hellooooo.... now they are ducking for cover and saying we did nothing wrong... yes you did.... guilt by association with cassimatis...

one problem is that some signed documents taht they may not have fully understood or read all the way through. but they trusted people so i suppose signing something that you dont really understand is a problem. even when reading these documents they are long and sometimes impossible to really know what they were all about. i thnk alot of people just did things out of trust especially if you were with someone for 10 years or so. when things were going well nobody wass complaining about the signatures on documents or loans as it seems it didnt matter. but when it all falls apart you feel like you need to blame someone. does anybody know anyone where the bank has forgiven the debt or put the loans aside? i suppose if there are confidintial agreements we will never know.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

"Storm Financial founders ordered to return $2 million dividend"

"STORM Financial founders Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis have been ordered to return a contentious $2 million `dividend' they paid themselves in the dying days of the wealth adviser late last year."

"Those funds will now be used to pay the employee entitlements in full," Mr Buckby said.

Story by Tony Raggatt is here in the Townsville Bulletin;

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/05/09/52705_hpnews.html

It will be interesting to see whether sicag.info, the victims' site will bother to mention this to their members.

I suspect not.

Manny seems to be a no go zone for them.

gg

 

[bunyip]

when things were going well nobody wass complaining about the signatures on documents or loans as it seems it didnt matter. but when it all falls apart you feel like you need to blame someone.

And that, Chris our friend, is exactly why you Stormers have copped some flak on this thread.
Cassamatis was your hero when the market was going up and everything was rosy. And the banks were your friends for lending you the money that allowed you to cut yourselves a generous slice of the juicy stock market pie.
But as soon as it all falls apart you make villains of your heroes and you blame them for all your woes.

To their credit, a handful of Stormers on here have been honest enough to admit that they themselves played a big part in their downfall by being too naive and trusting.
But the overwhelming and recurring theme from Stormers and SICAG has been to blame it on someone else.

 

[Mash]

there are other ways to get information to ex storm clients not just the sicag website. you never know what bank scum likes to patrol the sicag site.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

there are other ways to get information to ex storm clients not just the sicag website. you never know what bank scum likes to patrol the sicag site.

I think the AFR and the Australian are some of the best portals for information as well as our own Townsville Bulletin.

I still find it strange that not one adverse comment agains the Cassimatis has ever been made on the sicag.info site, not one.

There is bugger all except politicians statements on the sicag site, and an anti bank stance.

And again may I state that I am no friend of the banks.



gg

 

[SJG1974]

I think the AFR and the Australian are some of the best portals for information as well as our own Townsville Bulletin.

I still find it strange that not one adverse comment agains the Cassimatis has ever been made on the sicag.info site, not one.

There is bugger all except politicians statements on the sicag site, and an anti bank stance.

And again may I state that I am no friend of the banks.



gg

I agree gg that it is odd how no mention is made of the Cassimatis' on the SICAG site. I do recall an answer or two to questions posed on the now offline www.cassimatis.com.au site which mentioned SICAG...I do recall wondering whether there was any link between SICAG and the Cassimatis'.

Coincidence perhaps, but it certainly does smell fishy that SICAG are blaming the banks but not the salesman who recommended the banks' products.

 

[darkside]

See the one person who can shed so much light on this thread, and promised so much, but so far has delivered, zip, zilch, nought, nada , nothing, come on "Cereberus" , where are you ? don't leave us hanging.

 

[bunyip]

Coincidence perhaps, but it certainly does smell fishy that SICAG are blaming the banks but not the salesman who recommended the banks' products.

There are a couple of possible explanations.....

1. SICAG recognise that legal action against Cassamatis has no chance of getting any money out of the dry Storm coffers.

2. SICAG believe that action against the banks offers them a slim hope of recouping some of their losses, and they see Cassamatis as an ally in this endeavour due to his vehement condemnation of the banks.

 

[Farencue]

So Mash, bank scum aside for the moment, did you in fact authorise Storm to act on your behalf?

I realise I am not as eloquent as yourself in this conversation, but you have yet to answer the question posed to you numerous times.