White Collar Crime - Canada
I'm wondering if someone could be charged for uttering false predictions if they have a vested interest in the results of their forecasts. And what about the press who publicize this crap. What is the point of having someone come back and forecast future prices when they were previously so incorrect? how is the average family supposed to protect themselves with this kind of environment.
Canada is corrupt as hell and we have lost our moral compass, if we ever had one.
You can rest assured if the Real Estate Board is forecasting a drop of 13% it's probably going to be a lot more than that.
If you do the direct opposite of what these 'professionals' forecast or suggest you do, you will proably do fine.
This was then:
B.C. real estate sales cool, but prices still expected to rise
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/06/bc-real-estate-spring-forecast.html
And this is now:
Price of average B.C. home pegged to drop 13 per cent
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/02/04/bc-real-estate-slide-vancouver.html?ref=rss#socialcomments
"My wife and I have looking for a home for the last 6 months and every week or so we've seen price reductions. It’s incredible what people think their house is worth even when it needs work or is on a busy street etc. A few of the homes we looked at had been on the market for over 120 days…not so fun to sell when people aren’t tripping over themselves in a haze of greed.
The economy is NOT going to recover in 2010. If you think we will have any worthwhile growth you are in absolute denial, and you have not grasped the severity of our current world economic situation. We are in a once in lifetime (hopefully) economic hurricane and I’m afraid that the storm has only begun to approach.
I feel sorry for those people who bough at the top because they listened to stupid people; I don't feel bad at all for the speculators; I hope they end up in a card board box. They caused this mess, from falsely propping up oil prices and other commodities to terribly lose lending practices and pimping real estate as a sure thing; theses agents should be punished, as they are the REAL terrorist on this planet. They have cause far more damage than Al-Qaida ever will.
Over the last 3 years I've tried to explain to my friends that a bubble was forming, but all my arguments, based on my schooling (BA, Economics major) were always laughed at. To them I was raining on their parade instead of offering some level headedness…too bad you didn’t listen.
I'm going to feel a nice sense of satisfaction when I buy my families first home with 20+% down for less than my friends paid for their soon to leak Condos."
A good country for crooks: Canada's losing war against white-collar crime (2007)
Canada isn’t having much luck cleaning up its image as A country that is soft on white-collar crime. While Conrad Black faces up to 35 years in prison after his recent conviction in a Chicago courtroom, Canadian authorities are still licking their wounds after the recent acquittal of former Bre-X chief geologist John Felderhof on civil charges of insider trading.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Four years ago, the RCMP launched its Integrated Market Enforcement Teams, or IMETs, elite squads of investigators who were supposed to work together to crack down on white-collar crime. The results have been disappointing, to say the least. While the U.S. Justice Department has racked up more than 1,200 convictions against high-level executives and scammers in the past five years, the IMETs have managed just two — against the same person.
Canadian Business senior writer John Gray talked with Craig Hannaford and Bill Majcher — two IMET officers who recently left the force — about the problems cops face in getting their man, and what can be done about them. Both have spent their careers trying to protect investors from fraudsters. Hannaford, now a private consultant in Toronto, oversaw the investigation into the collapse of Livent Inc. Majcher is best known for his work in the Bermuda Short sting, a joint RCMP-FBI undercover operation that nabbed corrupt Canadian lawyers Martin Chambers and Simon Rosenfeld in 2002. Majcher is now managing director at the Baron Group, a Hong Kong–based investment bank.
Their message: When it comes to white-collar crime, it’s worse than you think.
Canadian Business: How would you describe the state of Canada’s justice system when it comes to dealing with white-collar crime?
Bill Majcher: The system is pretty much non-existent. You can fix something that is hemorrhaging, but if the body is already lifeless, you have to start fresh. We need politicians to admit that the system is broken from the top to the bottom. Canadians have to understand that we have a two-tiered justice system, where people with money can play the system.
Does Canada deserve its reputation as a haven for white-collar crime?
Majcher: Canada is seen as a haven for criminals. We have strong trust laws, a strong and stable banking system, strong privacy legislation and weak enforcement. But don’t take my word for it. When I was undercover in the Martin Chambers case, he told me I should move my [fake] criminal operations to Canada. There is far less risk, and you don’t spend time in a U.S. prison. When I asked him how much safer it was, he said it was 20 times safer. Simon Rosenfeld [a Canadian lawyer convicted of money laundering in 2005] said it was 100 times safer. Rosenfeld called Canada “la-la land.”[/quote]
"My wife and I have looking for a home ...
I'm going to feel a nice sense of satisfaction when I buy my families first home with 20+% down for less than my friends paid for their soon to leak Condos."
Are you quoting someone here, NR, or is this you talking? Just wondering why you're using quotation marks.
And of course with our press no wonder white collar-crime thrives in Canada. Today's Vancouver Sun has screeming headlines about some murders, whereas when Felderhof was on trial, and again when it was announced he was acquitted of insider trading, it was buried somewhere on the back pages. Bre-X though, talk about ghosts from the past, how many years now has it been? 10 at least.
The Bre-X investigation was quite bizarre to say the least. There was/is a report online explaining how after the hoax had been discovered. Bre-X spent 1,000,000 dollars (they hired some forensic team headed up by a former RCMP head) to investigate who carried out the scam. The forensic investigators discovered it was 4 Philipino geologists who worked for Bre-X in Indonesia, including Mike de Guzman, Canada's Prospector of the Year award winner (can you imagine that), and the guy who supposedly fell (haha) out of the helicopter, and whose body was never found for sure, who carried out the salting of the assay samples.
Initially the RCMP had an investigation going into Bre-X and then abruptly dropped their investigation. To this day Canadians have never been told why the case was dropped in a convincing manner.
Bre-X had all the makings of a great story. Ex-CIA Chief, and former USA President Bush Sr was on Canada's Barrick Gold's international Board of Directors as was our former prime minister Brian Mulroney, and they had cut a deal with one of the Indonesian Suharto Royal family's children, to develop the mine, but somehow another mining giant USA's Freeport Macmoran (sp?), who had their own strong Indonesian connections, won. I suppose Freeport's bribes were larger.
Felderhof's trial was crazy. He was charged with insider trading, not even for the Bre-X fraud or hoax, or whatever it was, and yet the OSC couldn't even get their act together to get him on insider trading. Talk about keystone cops.
That's why Canada reputation in dealing with wc crime is a laughing stock with people in the know.
Why the RCMP didn't get their man
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/features/brex/story.html?id=52ec63b3-7860-4aef-a84d-862f7a36bb09&p=1
Mounties sent their best to Indonesia to unravel mining's greatest hoax. But international roadblocks and unhelpful witnesses foiled their efforts. Years later, no one has gone to jail for the Bre-X fraud.Tony Seskus and Suzanne Wilton, Calgary HeraldPublished: Monday, May 28, 2007The trail stretched from the tangled jungles of Indonesia to the well-scrubbed streets of Calgary, but it finished with a frank admission in a news release.
In the case of mining's greatest gold swindle, the Mounties failed to get their man.
"The RCMP did not obtain any direct evidence to show who salted the Bre-X core samples and who had knowledge of salting," RCMP officials acknowledged in a May 1999 statement.
"Given the facts . . . it is not appropriate to proceed at this time."
Eight years on, criminal charges still have not been laid in the gold hoax of Calgary's Bre-X Minerals -- though investigators suspected who was responsible.
The case is open, but inactive.
Investigators maintain that international roadblocks and unco-operative witnesses stymied their efforts, not a lack of resources or resolve.
But the Bre-X debacle is often produced as Exhibit A by critics who argue criminals are better off sporting a necktie than a balaclava in Canada.
"We need to make our criminal laws and enforcement more effective -- that's the lesson to take away from Bre-X," says Paul Bourque, senior vice-president of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, which represents the country's securities sector.
"I don't think we can walk away from these major scandals without some deterrent."
Bre-X was a financial disaster by any measure. The firm soared to the top of Canada's junior mining scene in 1995 on the back of a massive gold find in Indonesia. But the company crashed in 1997 when the exploration results that fuelled the stock market euphoria were revealed to be salted -- or spiked -- with gold.
Investors lost up to $3 billion.
Acting on a complaint by Bre-X president David Walsh, the RCMP began investigating in Calgary. Stock market regulators joined in with a parallel probe for possible insider trading and securities violations.
I wonder if Wolfgang Stolzenberg is related to former prime minister Mulroney's buddy, Schreiber.
Trapping a rat
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2001/060701/kristian.html
This is part of the problem.
Lead counsel for OSC in their Bre-X investigation.
Securities Compliance
http://www.federatedpress.com/products/bookads/SecCompl3.htm
Encyclopedia of White-collar & Corporate Crime
http://books.google.ca/books?id=0f7yTNb_V3QC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=bre-x+minerals+forensic+investigative+associates&source=web&ots=OeKvNP8ETR&sig=gQ0gweuHD-7cAqM_KUBehCkrLOs&hl=en&ei=ngyOSdeJHpmQsQPD7umWCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA109,M1
---------------------------------------------
Consultant's Report Clears Bre-X Chairman
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807EED81F3DF93BA35753C1A961958260
The chief executive of Bre-X Minerals Ltd., David Walsh, was unaware of tampering by company geologists that helped to convince investors that the company had found the world's largest gold deposit, a report commissioned by Bre-X concludes.
Forensic Investigative Associates Inc., a private investigation firm hired by Bre-X after the company collapsed in April, said the ''salting'' of drill samples from the company's gold property in Indonesia was probably carried out by a Bre-X employee at the instructions of his boss, Michael de Guzman. Mr. De Guzman committed suicide on March 19, shortly before it became known that the site contained little, if any, gold.
The report said that while Mr. Walsh had no knowledge of the salting operation, ''participation or knowledge'' by Bre-X's chief geologist, John Felderhof, ''is still an open question.'' Mr. Felderhof has said he knew nothing of the fraud.
--------------------------------------------------
There is/was a company called Forensic Investigative Associates, mentioned in the above online article about Bre-X, that actually discovered the fraud
------------------------
The following is probably the most accurate brief synopsis of what actually took place with Bre-X.
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/sribr/1999/18.pdf
------------------------
Now this is interesting about deGuzman
The mystery of Michael de GuzmanIn search of gold hoax's mystery manhttp://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/features/brex/story.html?id=f200d0be-00db-4a52-8cf2-4f4b0f56bf08&k=51073
------------
Here is the FIA report on Brex which explains quite clearly how the fraud occured;
The Deloitte & Touche Inc'sForensic Investigative Associate Inc. (FIA) Report
to
BRE-X MINERALS .....
BRE-X FIA Report
INDEX AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
http://www.baystreet.com/deloitte/brex-46.html"From our inquiries, we believe that Michael de Guzman orchestrated thepurchase of alluvial gold from a gold panner at Busang throughout the
period of tampering, and that he used a number of intermediaries to do so.
In the July-August-September 1995 period, we believe that de Guzman
and Cesar Puspos took advantage of a laboratory built at Busang to salt
samples of mineralized core. However, the salting efforts produced erratic
assaying results. This prompted de Guzman to shift Cesar Puspos from
Busang to the Samarinda office of Bre-X, and use that location for the
actual tampering.
We believe that at Samarinda from about October 1995 to about March
1997, Cesar Puspos, under the direction of de Guzman, systematically
directed the opening of sample bags from Busang before they were dispatched
to Indo Assay. Once they were opened, we believe that samples were salted
with alluvial gold, an operation that was done only under the direction and
in the presence of either Cesar Puspos or de Guzman.
The issue of John Felderhof's participation or knowledge is still an
open question and judgement on him must be reserved until the appropriate
additional investigation has been completed.
We found no evidence that David Walsh, Steve McAnulty, Paul Kavanagh,
Tom Devlin, Hugh Lyons, Rolly Francisco, Bryan Coates, Jeannette Walsh and
Brett Walsh were either involved in or had knowledge of any of the illegal
activities with respect to tampering that took place in Indonesia.
We found no evidence that Jonathan Nassey, Rudy Vega and John Salamat,
Bernhard Leode, Gregory Macdonald, Roger Farebrother, Louis Young, Jim
Rush, John Irvin and Indo Assay were either involved in or had knowledge of
any of the illegal activities with respect to tampering that took place in
Indonesia.
We are satisfied on the basis of the information we have reviewed that
Michael de Guzman committed suicide by jumping from a helicopter on March
19, 1997. We believe he killed himself when faced with the prospect of
having to be exposed for salting Bre-X samples.
We believe that de Guzman, with the assistance of Cesar Puspos,
fraudulently removed US$30,000 to US$40,000 from BRE-X."
Its a common theme as countries and their leaders meet with coporate leaders to try to fix the mess they are in. And as much as the emphasis is put on big banks and big coporations as what is truly imporatant to an economy I am thinking what about the workers? They are what keeps this country going strong especially since its the worker who pays the majority of taxes in this land as coporations find a freedom in this land like no other as governments give big coporations all those big tax breaks. Oh and what did these brainy guys come up with well they need the working guys cash to get them out of the hole they got the country in. So I'm thinking these guys aren't politicans they are comedians but unfortunately no one is laughing.
Unless a monopoly is happening, it is hard for anyone to predict future prices. Even so, the real estate industry will be shilled by the news media because the real estate industry spends millions on ads in the news media. I am sure many community newspapers would have to close their doors if they were not allowed to take real estate advertising.
Speaking of white collar crime, there seems to have been so much money to be made off of the avails of prostitution that Now Magazine now has a competitor owned by the Toronto Star, which is called Eye Magazine.
Canada has very lax attitudes towards crime all the way through the spectrum. A guy can kill his disabled daughter and get out on parole after a few years. Kids can run around with guns and the cops and courts play catch and release. Whole businesses are set up to scam people, and their only fear is the US authorities. And God forbid one should say anything against grow-ops, meth labs, and crack houses, lest one be accused of being 'fascist' or 'intolerant'.
Seeing all this going on it is little wonder Canada has the reputation of the scam capital of the world.
more from that article:
In a global criminal or terrorist organization, it's very useful to have a Canadian nexus. Then the whole network has the protection of the Canadian charter. If you can show that the Canadian police are involved in an international investigation, you can serve a disclosure application and the Canadian police can be compelled to disclose all the investigation information-even the information given by other law enforcement or intelligence agencies. Canada is absolutely an Achilles heel for international criminal and terrorist investigations.
-end quote -
Bad Canada!!
The article also says that "commodities are our only asset, and nothing is being done to help expand and diversify our economy."
I notice how corporate oil people get their hackles up when renewable energy is mentioned, because they know it would end their reign of being the only source of energy. I guess that means it is all being managed for the benefit of the big boys, and they don't want diversity.
As for house prices, ya, I hope you get yours at a decent price. Houses should cost something close to what it takes to build them, plus the lot, and not these huge markups we were having up until this year. The figure used to be about $75 per square foot, maybe $100 with more expensive materials, which would mean a 2000sq.ft. home should only cost $200,000 at most, not $500,000 or $1Million.
There is so little press coverage one might get the impression that Canada has little white collar crime.
I wonder why!
10:00 AM today? Yes, that's what the Vancouver Supreme Court listing says, sorta
http://www.bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
Drug dealer linked to legislature raid imprisonedRCMP oddly silent about key victory against cocaine ring
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Drug+dealer+linked+legislature+raid+imprisoned/1297264/story.html
The RCMP targeted him and launched the massive operation that ultimately snared Bains, the two high-flying Liberal operatives and several others.
Tips from an informant suggested Basi was laundering money for Bains by purchasing real estate, Winteringham said.
After a wiretap operation was in place for the drug case, police overheard Basi discussing the sale of BC Rail. That auction process is at the heart of the breach-of-trust charges the former back-room operatives face.
At the time, Basi was an aide to Gary Collins, then B.C.'s finance minister. Virk, Basi's brother-in-law, was an aide to Judith Reid, then B.C.'s transportation minister.
Basi and Virk are accused of accepting bribes in exchange for confidential government documents concerning the controversial sale of the provincial railway company.
Another cousin, Aneal Basi, who worked as a government media analyst, is accused of money laundering for allegedly accepting cheques from Erik Bornmann, then a partner in the lobbying firm Pilothouse, and transferring funds to Basi.
Pilothouse was retained by U.S.-based OmniTrax, one of the bidders for the BC Rail assets. Winteringham alleged that during a police search of Pilothouse's office, confidential government documents were found.
The Liberal administration announced on Nov. 25, 2003, that it had accepted CN Rail's $1-billion bid for the bulk of railway assets. An auction for the Roberts Bank spur line was cancelled in March 2004 after police advised that the process had been compromised.
The trial on the breach-of-trust issues remains mired and awaiting a Supreme Court of Canada decision about whether defence lawyers but not their clients will be allowed to learn the identity of a confidential informant.
I wonder what the actual per cent is of business executives in Canada involved in w-c crime. 25% - 50% - 75%
White-collar crime can payhttp://www.timescolonist.com/news/White+collar+crime/1309417/story.html
The RCMP announced in June that fraud charges had been laid, praising its officers' work on the investigation. But for more than seven months after police began looking him for him, Thow remained on the loose. The money has not been recovered.
It wasn't hard to track Thow down over most of the past three years, while the investigation into the fraud allegations moved forward with painful slowness. The Times Colonist caught up with him in Seattle, where he was working as a mortgage broker. (So much for reference checks.)
It's not an isolated case. The RCMP established Integrated Market Enforcement Teams to fight investment fraud and white-collar crime. The team in Vancouver, with a budget of $2.5 million a year, has been in operation for more than five years. In that time, its investigations have resulted in two people being charged, Thow being one of them.
A report commissioned by the RCMP and released about 14 months ago found "disappointing results" from the teams, which operate in centres across Canada. The units need better leadership, faster work, more accountability, less turnover and more money, the review found. The fragmented web of security regulators across the country is also a problem.
Canadians have watched as white-collar crimes in the U.S. resulted in relatively swift action by investigators, prosecutors and the courts.
In Canada, as Thow is demonstrating, victims can count on little from the system that supposedly protects them.
So while these Keystone Kops are failing to secure convictions of white-collar criminals, they're more than happy to beat up poor people and Aboriginals and secure "suspension with pay" as the final penalty.
I guess it's easier to knock off a homeless person. Heaven forbid a cop should do some real work tracking down financial transactions to find where a few million went.