Martin Lee @ Sg
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Genneva Gold Set to Lose Lawsuit

Genneva Gold, or more correctly known as Genneva Pte Ltd, was recently sued for their failure to return customer’s gold and money.

A plaintiff, Lee Bee Ghok, has won an interlocutory judgment against Genneva in the Subordinate Court.

The judgement might very well be a hallow victory because based on the latest filings, Genneva has liabilities that are higher than their assets.

I understand that there are a few other lawsuits that are also ongoing or in the process of being initiated.

I had given a warning about Genneva Gold as far back as 2009. Any company that has promise you a guaranteed return of 2% a month is simply not going to be sustainable.

As with most ponzi scams, they will take some time before they unravel.

Until they do, there will be many people speaking for both sides of the argument. My Genneva Gold article was the actually the most commented article on this site. As of today, it hads over 5000 comments!

It was reported that Genneva had even set up another company Genneva World a few months ago to ask their customers to transfer their gold holdings to the new company.

The relevant authorities should investigate whether there was any fraudulent transfer of assets to the new holding company in a bid to avoid payment to the Genneva creditors.

Other than Genneva Gold, there are a few other companies around in Singapore and Malaysia that offers similar buyback schemes.

For those who are invested into such schemes or thinking of doing so, consider yourself warned. You have to take a personal responsibility to protect yourself. MAS will not protect you as these firms are unregulated, and thus do not fall under the purview of MAS.

As the saying goes, a fool and his gold are soon parted.

Gold trading firm taken to court by customer (Business Times 25 Sep 2012)

Leave a Comment:

11 comments
Sha says 11 years ago

In fact, people have lose more money in ‘MAS -approved investment’.

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al says 11 years ago

Generally I agreed with what you have shared, except the last statement “MAS will not protect you as these firms are unregulated, and thus do not fall under the purview of MAS.” MAS do not protect even if firms are regulated as in the Lehman brother case, pinnacles notes from DBS, etc.

Another complaint I have is, They (MAS) have known of schemes like Genneva, Gold Guarantee, etc. way before but have not done anything except to put them under watchlist. How many investors actually read up the watchlist? MAS supposed to be Monetary Authority, should it means that they have the Authority (as in power) and Authority (as in knowledge and expertise) in regards to money matters (includes gold, investment schemes). I have actually called and email them in 2009 on these scheme and have gotten standard reply: “these are not under our preview!”

In this regard, our neighbor (MAS equivalent) has done better. They have raided Genneva HQ in 7 May 2010, a 2 years ahead of Singapore and their money laundering case is still pending.
http://www.bnm.gov.my/microsites/fraudalert/0301_status.htm#gold_label

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    Martin Lee says 11 years ago

    Hi al,

    For that last statement of mine, I am just stating the current situation. Generally, I agree with your views too.

    Reply
Jimmy Teo says 11 years ago

The whole fiasco is about greed and fast money. Fast money means fast troubles. I have been hearing of gold investment scams for the past decades, and yet some people still flocked to it. Over time,if they do not know how to pulled out fast, they falter & lose most of their principal capital. The climb of gold from several hundred dollars per oz to the present near two thousand USD must have sustained the ponzi masters until the current stabilization of gold. I told my friend to back out of it some few years back & also recently. He just called me yesterday to meet with him & possibly to seek legal redress. He is jobless & is using this scheme to earn some pocket money as he is in the retirement phase.

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Anonymous says 11 years ago

I think there are proper avenues to buy into physical gold. And btw, is genneva’s old of investment grade? I doubt they can be openly traded. Buy at spot rate instead of 20-30% now and it might earn you more with a peace of mind. Check out its price trend over twenty years and you know why. If you are into real investment, why bother about the small money you receive every month?

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Anonymous says 11 years ago

In singapore you die your business. Even if regulated investment like stocks and unit trusts, if company goes bust or in trouble & restructure and write-off 90% of your stock value, MAS also cannot help you. And you’ll need to wait 5-10 years to get back even 5% or 10% of the residual value, if there’s anything left.

What you gonna do? Hire assassins and professional torturers to take revenge?? Take revenge on who? The former CEO, former CFO, former board of directors?? Even if you have gumption and means and prepared to be hanged, they may also disappear into some 3rd world countries.

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almostscammedbygm2 says 11 years ago

This is the newsclip at TCS 8 news at 10 pm regarding Genneva Gold (in mandarin, some interviews in English). 27 Sept 2012.

http://youtu.be/ZmzXcGGv3Ig

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Lee Mei May says 11 years ago

Dear Farank,
Do not make the mistake of looking at the time frame but look at the business model and the history of failures of goldcos using the same/similar business models. Remember Benny Madoff’s ponzi, which is the Mother of all ponzis attracted investors who are in the “Who is Who” list and lasted more than 20 years and raked in more than a few times the amount transacted by this Mother of Goldcos.

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Troubled says 11 years ago

I am one of those effected. I know it’s really stupid cos i can hear everyone saying I told u so. I was just wondering… How do I join the process in suing Genneva Gold as week? Please advice.

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    passerby says 11 years ago

    I’m just curious, troubled did u mentioned to hold onto yr gold? if yes, sell in open market or if u think gold will raise then sell it later. i think now from the news, its much more risky to pass the gold to the co without getting any money on the spot. dont think cheque is safe too

    Reply
Farank Lampard says 11 years ago

If you are such a good predictor and financial analyst Martin and you predicted the collaps of Genneva in 2009. Its now 2012 and they are still there. If they were a Ponzi they would have died a long time ago. Admit you were wrong.

Reply
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